MNI BRIEF: Fed's Barkin-Jobs Shakier, Inflation Less Troubling

The U.S. employment outlook has deteriorated following recent weakening in payroll growth and large downward revisions to past numbers, while inflation has not risen as much as had been feared due to tariffs, Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said Friday. 

"We've been hearing this low firing, low firing thing for some time, but the jobs data wasn't giving much cause for concern. What has happened over the last two months, and you can't run away from that, is that a bunch of revisions have come in that have shown that job growth has been much more modest," he said during a Q&A at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. 

"Today, and you look at our mandate variables, you have to say unemployment looks a little bit shakier. Inflation is a little bit better than you would forecast three months." (See MNI INTERVIEW: Fed Right To Remain Cautious On Rate Cuts)

Barkin did not directly address future rate cuts but he said assessing policy "meeting by meeting is a very reasonable way to think about it."