Chicago Fed President Praises Jobs Report

(Reuters) – Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee on Friday called the latest U.S. jobs report “superb” and said more labor market data along those lines would boost his confidence the economy is at full employment with low inflation.

“You really couldn’t ask realistically for a better report for the economy, coupled with finding out that the (East Coast and Gulf Coast) port strike is not going to be an extended matter … those are two pieces of very good news for the economy,” Goolsbee told Bloomberg TV shortly after the Labor Department released its employment report for September, which showed a considerably bigger-than-expected gain of 254,000 jobs and a drop in the unemployment rate to 4.1%.

“If we get more reports like this I’m going to feel a lot more confident that we are in fact settling in at full employment.”

Still, Goolsbee mentioned that the job market by a broad set of measures is cooling, and there are signs that inflation could undershoot the Fed’s 2% target. “There are pieces of strong data, and then there are pieces of weakness,” he said.

With the U.S. central bank’s policy rate far above what most policymakers see as the eventual “settling point,” Goolsbee said it is appropriate for the Fed to bring it down “a lot” over the next 12 to 18 months, as most policymakers currently expect.