Most of my colleagues on the Federal Open Market Committee and I estimate that the unemployment rate consistent with maximum sustainable employment is now between 5.2 percent and 5.6 percent, well below the 6.7 percent rate in February. The other goal assigned by the Congress is stable prices, which means keeping inflation under control.
In the past, there have been times when these two goals conflicted – fighting inflation often requires actions that slow the economy and raise the unemployment rate. But that is not a dilemma now, because inflation is well below 2 percent, the Fed’s longer-term goal. The Federal Reserve takes its inflation goal very seriously.