The SEC recently adopted new rules requiring each mutual fund to adopt formal compliance procedures and to have a chief compliance officer who reports directly to the fund’s independent directors. By centralizing the responsibility for compliance in one officer’s hands, the rules should improve mutual funds’ internal controls and give shareholders’ interests an authoritative voice within the management company.
If labor force participation was to remain flat, job gains in the range of 125,000 to 175,000 would likely be needed to prevent unemployment from creeping up. However, if labor force participation was to decline, as might be expected given demographic trends, the neutral rate of payroll gains would be lower.