Ask the Fed
“The Fed is trying to achieve price stability and maximum employment,” said Sylvain Leduc, Executive Vice President and Director of Research of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (FRBSF), known informally as “the Fed.” In terms of employment levels, “we are back to where we were pre-pandemic.” He was speaking on February 7, 2023, at a public briefing in which he outlined the FRBSF’s thinking on economic matters. He showed a graph of unemployment, which reached a peak at the start of the pandemic in early 2020. The monthly change in nonfarm payroll employment had a downward arc. “Job […]
The Beveridge Curve
In early 2021, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the U.S. saw many workers leave their jobs and seek other employment—leading to record high job vacancies—a phenomenon observed dubbed “the great resignation.” Lately, inflation is rising, markets are cooling, and the great resignation appears to be slowing. The question becomes: How will unemployment rise as growth slows and job vacancies decline? On August 29, 2022, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (FRBSF) released an Economic Letter titled “Finding a Soft Landing along the Beveridge Curve” that explores the current relationship between unemployment and economic growth. The paper was […]