Yellen: ‘The Labor Market Looks a Lot the Way It Did Before the Recession’

‘It’s roughly comparable to 2007 levels when we thought there was a normal amount of slack in the labor market’

YELLEN: "If we look at larger, broader measures of slack, like the U6 measure that includes involuntary part-time employment and those who are marginally attached to the labor force, you are slightly higher than pre-recession lows but they have come down considerably. We look at a broad array of the indicators of the labor market, and if you look at job openings or the hires rate or the quick rate or the difficulty of hiring workers as reported in business surveys, I would say the labor market looks a lot like the way it did before the recession. It's roughly comparable to 2007 levels when we thought there was a normal amount of slack in the labor market. The labor market was in the vicinity of maximum employment."

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