MNI BRIEF: Bostic Says Weaker Jobs Could Mean Less Patient Fed

A persistently weaker-than-expected job market could mean the Federal Reserve might face greater urgency to cut interest rates than it previously thought, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said Wednesday, following a soft July jobs number and large downward revisions for May and June. 

The July report "suggests maybe labor markets are a lot weaker than they had been signaling over the previous four or five months. If that's the case, then maybe there is some more imbalance we should be thinking about, and our ability to be patient is much less than it was before," Bostic said. (See MNI INTERVIEW: Mounting BLS Pressure Harmful For Data-Groshen) 

"To me, that's the question we're going to try to have an answer for in coming out and talking to you all, scouring our survey responses and the data to really get a sense of how much have labor markets weakened such that we shouldn't feel like we can afford to be patient."