Economic Collapse News reported Monday of how potentially the bleak jobs report for August as well as the downgrades in the June and July employment numbers could prompt the Federal Reserve to cease its plans to begin tapering its quantitative easing measure. One president at the Fed doesn’t believe it will happen.
Speaking at a press conference Monday at the annual meeting of the National Association for Business Economics, San Francisco Federal Reserve President John Williams explained that it is unlikely that last month’s awful jobs numbers would deter Fed Chair Ben Bernanke from moving on with its proposed ending to its bond-buying program.
Although Williams did not say if the Fed will start to take the necessary steps in the next meeting, Williams did state that he expects the Fed to gradually taper its $85 billion per month acquisitions starting this year and coming to a conclusion by the end of June next year.
“It’s really important for us to not [read too much] into one month’s data, whether strong or weak,” Williams told the audience. “The latest data is consistent with forecasts of gradual improvement. I’m still 100 percent on board with Chairman Bernanke’s timeline.”
In addition, he sees the jobs numbers as an overall improvement and suggests that the Fed is meeting its goal to improve the United States labor market.
“The unemployment rate and a number of other labor-market indicators, such as payroll job gains, point to continued progress in the labor market,” said Williams, who is not a voting member of the Fed’s policy-making committee. “Clearly, we are getting closer to meeting our test of substantial improvement in the labor market.”
Despite his supportive remarks, Williams is not a voting member of the Fed’s Board of Governors because the central bank rotates its voting regional members. Williams is scheduled to become a voting member in 2015.
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