Federal Reserve Spokesperson: Low Employment Growth May Become the New Normal, Especially Fragile in a War Context

According to a report by Jinshi, Federal Reserve spokesperson Nick Timiraos wrote that in March, 178k new jobs were added, reversing the decline in February, and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.3%. However, wages for ordinary workers slowed to the lowest year-over-year growth rate in five years since the pandemic recovery. Averaging March and February, the monthly increase was only 22.5k jobs, a level that two years ago would have raised concerns, but now may still be considered acceptable. Federal Reserve officials are working to explain this change; San Francisco Fed President Daly wrote on Friday that it is not easy to help the public understand that an economy with zero employment growth can still be consistent with full employment, and this situation is especially fragile under new supply shocks.