(Reuters) – The U.S. labor market is likely to recover at a pace of about 500,000 jobs a month, putting it on track to return to pre-pandemic levels by next summer, St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said on Wednesday.
“It’s not that easy to add, you know, 1 million jobs in a particular month,” Bullard said during an online interview with the Washington Post.
Returning to pre-pandemic employment levels by next summer could help meet the Fed’s criteria for raising interest rates, Bullard said. He repeated his view that he supports tapering asset purchases early so the Fed could raise interest rates next year, if needed.
(Reporting by Jonnelle Marte; Editing by Anil D’Silva)
