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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Friday’s report showing 1.4 million Americans found or resumed work in August was good news, but the economy likely will require low interest rates for years.
“I would say today’s jobs report was a good one,” Powell said in an interview with National Public Radio conducted Friday afternoon. “Through May and June, we got quite a few people back to work.”
Employers added 1.4 million jobs last month, helping push down the unemployment rate to 8.4% from 10.2% in July, the Labor Department report said Friday. The jobless rate’s decline—it has dropped from near 15% in April at the beginning of the pandemic—put it below the peak from the 2007-2009 recession.
The U.S. economy lost nearly 22 million jobs between February and April, but has recovered around half of those since May. Through August, around 11.5 million fewer people had jobs than in February.
