Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on Friday said the Great Recession complicated the Fed’s ability to assess the U.S. job market and made it harder to determine when to adjust interest rates.
Ms. Yellen’s remarks to an annual Fed conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, offered no signal that she’s altered her view that the economy still needs Fed support from ultra-low interest rates. The timing of a Fed rate increase remains unclear.
The Fed chair noted that while the unemployment rate has steadily declined, other gauges of the job market have been harder to evaluate and may reflect continued weakness. These include high levels of people who have been unemployed for more than six months, many people working part time who would like full-time jobs and weak pay growth.
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