Powell Highlights Importance of U.S. Employment Data for Monetary Policy Decisions

  • August 24, 2024
According to Odaily, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell emphasized the significance of U.S. employment data in his speech at the Jackson Hole conference, particularly in relation to the upcoming monetary easing cycle. Stephen Stanley from Santander Bank noted in a report that this underscores the importance of the August employment data, which is set to be released on September 6.Stanley pointed out that after the unexpectedly sluggish job growth in July, a similar trend in August would not be entirely surprising. More broadly, Powell and other Federal Reserve officials have recently expressed concerns about the cooling conditions in the labor market. Therefore, stronger employment data for August could potentially dispel the notion of a 50 basis point rate cut next month. Stanley believes that the employment report may be more critical than the core CPI data for August.