期刊名称：Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis - Regional Economist
出版年度：2015
出版社：Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
摘要：O ne of the goals of t he Federal Reserve Sy stem, part icularly of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), is to achieve ma ximu m employment. Therefore, staff and officials across t he System put great effor t into ana lyzing t he current conditions of the labor market. Unfortunately, there is no w idespread consensu s on the definition of maximum employment or how far the econ- omy is from it. Unt il recently, t he unemploy- ment rate has been the ha llmark indicator of labor market health; 1 even Fed Cha ir Janet Yellen argued in 2013 t hat "the unemploy- ment rate is probably the best single indicator of current labor market conditions." 2 Currently, the unemployment rate stands very close to its natu ral level, indicating that the labor market has returned to some sem- blance of normal. 3 However, unemploy ment may fall for reasons other than improved economic condit ions. For example, it may fall when u nemployed workers become discour- aged and stop looking for work; t hen, they are no longer being cou nted as a part of the labor force
