WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. labor market is still in the middle of adjusting to new wage and occupation trends that grew out of the pandemic as large firms raise wages and draw workers away from jobs that pay less, Atlanta Fed president Raphael Bostic said on Tuesday.
Sketching out a problem that could linger as the Fed tries to battle high inflation, Bostic told an Urban Institute conference “there’s a lot of shuffle and churn that’s going on. That’s creating a lot of tension and disequilibrium in the market place, and we’ve got to work through all that.” The economic reopening from the pandemic has included both high levels of job quitting by workers, high vacancy rates among employers, and strong wage growth.
(Reporting by Howard Schneider)