Hot jobs report doesn’t change Fed’s rate 'calculus': Goolsbee

Chicago Fed president Austan Goolsbee doesn’t think a hot jobs report released Friday will alter the downward path of interest rates over the next 12 to 18 months.

"I don’t think that calculus changes," he said in an interview with Yahoo Finance.

By the end of 2025, "I think we will be a fair bit lower if conditions continue like this," he added.

The Fed last month cut rates for the first time in more than four years, starting with a jumbo-sized 50 basis point cut designed to get ahead of any weakness in the labor market.

Read more: Jobs, inflation, and the Fed: How they're all related

But new data out Friday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed new strength instead. The labor market added 254,000 payrolls in September, more than the 150,000 expected by economists. The unemployment rate also fell to 4.1% from 4.2% in August.

But Goolsbee declined to say whether he believes a central bank estimate of smaller cuts in November and December still holds, preferring instead to argue that the longer-term outlook for reduced rates remains the same in his mind.

Fed policymakers last month estimated as a group that the central bank would pull the trigger on two more 25 basis point cuts in 2024, followed by four smaller cuts in 2025.

The bulk of the Fed’s rate-setting committee, Goolsbee noted, views rates eventually settling in a range of 2.5%-3.5%, down from today's range of 4.75% to 5.00%.

That analysis, he said, still "feels right to me."

However, he noted the pace with which the Fed gets to that level will hinge on economic conditions and whether there will be any surprises that could jolt the economy or inflation, including how much oil prices run up following more unrest in the Middle East.

"External shocks like that have derailed many a soft landing in previous times. And we've got to be attuned to all of those conditions before we can answer that," he said.

FILE PHOTO: Austan Goolsbee, Professor of the University of Chicago, speaks during the Obama Foundation
Chicago Fed president Austan Goolsbee in 2022. (REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo) · Reuters / Reuters

But if unemployment settles in the low 4% range while inflation simultaneously comes down to the Fed’s 2% goal, it would give Goolsbee more confidence that recession risk has lessened.

"It would give me more comfort that we are achieving exactly where we want to be," he said.

Other Fed watchers argued Friday that the new jobs report may change the calculus of the Fed in the near term. The odds of a bigger 50 basis point cut in November plunged Friday.

"I think this pushes the Fed out a lot," said Peter Tchir, Academy Securities head of macro strategy, while noting it could elevate central bank concerns about inflation.