Employers added a robust 339,000 jobs last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, though the unemployment rate climbed to 3.7% from 3.4%, the largest month-over-month increase since April 2020. Job openings rose to 10.1 million in April, after declining for three months in a row, the BLS reported earlier this week.
A recent paper co-authored by former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke argued that an economic downturn would be necessary to address the labor market's minor but persistent influence on inflation, which has indeed cooled in the long run. Hawkish Fed officials still think the Fed's job isn't done. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard, one of the Federal Open Market Committee's most hawkish voices, advocated for two more rate hikes during a moderated discussion last week. But in an analysis written by Bullard on the St. Louis Fed's website published Thursday, the St. Louis Fed chief struck a more balanced tone for inflation's descent in the future.
"As you come to turning points, there's always somebody who doesn't want to carry along with it, so yes, I think is characteristic of the Fed when opinions are shifting, so I think that is quite likely," Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said in a webinar this week.