Jerome Powell

You know, I would say point to a couple of things.

First of all, gradual cooling in the labor market has continued.

Unemployment is now up three tenths from June through September.

Payroll jobs averaging 40,000 per month since April.

We think there's an overstatement in these numbers by about 60,000.

So that would be negative 20,000 per month.

And also just to point out one other thing, surveys of households and businesses both showed declining supply and demand for workers.

So I think you can say that the labor market has continued to cool gradually, maybe just a touch more gradually than we thought.

Total PCE prices rose 2.8% over the 12 months ending in September.

And excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core PCE prices also rose 2.8%.

These readings are higher than earlier in the year as inflation for goods has picked up, reflecting the effects of tariffs.

In the near term, risks to inflation are tilted to the upside and risks to employment to the downside.

A challenging situation.

There is no risk free path for policy as we navigate this tension between our employment and inflation goals.

Everyone should understand that we're committed to 2% inflation and we will deliver 2% inflation.

But it's a complicated, unusual, difficult situation where the labor market is also under pressure.

Everyone should understand that we're committed to 2% inflation and we will deliver 2% inflation.

But it's a complicated, unusual, difficult situation where the labor market is also under pressure.

We are well positioned to wait to see how the economy evolves.

We are well positioned to wait to see how the economy evolves.