Powell Flags Further Gains Needed in Labor Market

Q: Can you give more detail on "substantial further progress"?

• A: On maximum employment: unlike with price stability, there isn't a single number that we can target. We monitor a broad range of data ... we look at all of it to try to arrive at a picture of what is maximum employment. So I can't give you a set of numbers, like we used for a time back in 2012.
• What would substantial further progress be? I'd say we have some ground to cover on the labor market side. I think we're some way away from having had substantial further progress on employment. I would want to see strong job numbers.
• On inflation: Inflation is running above our 2% objective and has been for a few months. It's expected to run above our objective for a few months before, we believe, it will move back down to our objective. The question whether we've met that objective is one for the committee to make, I can't do that by myself. But it's clear that at this time inflation is actually running above 2%.