FOMC Saw Stronger U.S. Recovery, Disappointed on Jobs

Federal Reserve policy makers took a more optimistic view of the U.S. economy last month while maintaining their dissatisfaction with job growth as they pressed forward with an expansion of record monetary stimulus.

Officials “continued to express disappointment in both the pace and the unevenness of the improvements in labor markets,” while also judging the recovery to be on a “firmer footing,” the Federal Open Market Committee said in minutes of its Jan. 25-26 meeting, released today in Washington. Policy makers raised projections for economic growth this year and made little change to forecasts after 2011 or for unemployment and inflation.