“Labor market conditions have slowed but remain strong,” Powell said.
Many Democrats have urged Powell to move quickly to cut interest rates to ensure the labor market and economy don’t falter. Some Republicans have said the Fed should ensure inflation is under control before acting and should consider the political consequences of cutting rates so soon before a presidential election.
“I worry that if the Fed waits too long to cut rates, it could undo the progress we’ve made in creating good jobs,” Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, told Powell.
The economy created a robust 206,000 new jobs in June, but the private sector added just 136,000, a sharp revision to the previous two months’ totals, a report released Friday showed. The average 146,000 jobs added by companies over the past three months represents the weakest performance since early 2021, noted Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
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