US jobs market still hampered, says Yellen

Jackson Hole, Wyoming

US labour markets remain hampered by the effects of the Great Recession, and the Federal Reserve should move cautiously in determining when interest rates should rise, Fed chair Janet Yellen said yesterday in a defence of her policy approach.

In a speech at a central banking conference here, Ms Yellen laid out in detail why she feels the unemployment rate alone is inadequate to evaluate the strength of the jobs market and why the Fed needed to move cautiously in deciding when to raise interest rates.