Fed's Beige Book reports steady employment in August

While the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia begins its search for CEO and President Patrick Harker's replacement — who is set to retire in June 2025 — the US central bank published its Beige Book report. Harker previously told Yahoo Finance a 25-basis-point interest rate cut is more likely to happen at the Fed's September meeting unless labor market conditions deteriorated.

Yahoo Finance Fed reporter Jennifer Schonberger highlights other Fed officials' sentiments around rate cuts and what the Beige Book indicates about the job market.

Catch Jennifer Schonberger's full interview with Philly Fed President Patrick Harker from the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Market Domination.

This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Transcripción del vídeo

The Philadelphia Fed starting its search to replace President Patrick Harker.

Yahoo Finance's Jennifer Ser has the details for us.

Hi Jess, good afternoon, Julie.

Great to see you.

That's right.

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve announcing today that is launching a search for a new president as its current chief, Patrick Harker is set to retire next summer.

Parker who's been at the helm of the Philly Fed since 2015 is slated to exit the regional Fed Bank on June 30th 2020 five central bank rules require that regional fed presidents retire when they hit age 65.

Now, Harker told me he expects the central bank to begin cutting rates by 25 basis points this month as the central bank begins to ease monetary policy and that he would be open to a larger cut.

If the labor market deteriorates suddenly, if we saw a substantial change in the labor market to the downside, then I would be open to a larger cut but not right now.

Parker says the labor market has softened but it's still strong.

Atlanta fed President Raphael Bostic shares that sentiment saying earlier today, he believes the Fed needs to start cutting rates before inflation hits 2% lest it disrupt the job market.

And speaking of the job market, the fed book released this afternoon, a compilation of anecdotal evidence across the Federal Reserve's 12 bank districts found that during August employment levels were steady overall.

But that there were isolated reports that firms filled only necessary positions, reduced hours and shifts or lowered overall employment levels through reductions.

Still reports of layoffs remained rare.

Now guys also of note, consumer spending fell in most districts during the month of August after holding steady in July.

So perhaps adding to that narrative of a cooling economy back to you.