Is the Fed’s Anti-Worker Bias Starting to Crack?
The bank has long worried more about high inflation than about high unemployment. That may finally be changing.
More worried about jobs or inflation?
Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North AmericaIn his testimony before the Senate Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell was peppered with questions about how to get more Americans working. It’s a valid concern — particularly for the Fed, which bears more responsibility for low labor force participation than it cares to admit.
First, a little background on what the statistic means. If you currently have a job, the government counts you as employed. If you don’t have job but have looked for one in the past four weeks, then it counts you as unemployed. And if you don’t have job and haven’t looked for one in the past four weeks, then the government says that you are out of the labor force. The labor force participation rate is the percentage of Americans who either have a job or have looked for one in the last four weeks.