Fed Vice Chairman Jefferson: Without the Fed's support, the job market will face potential pressure

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Jefferson said he expects the U.S. economy to continue growing at a pace of around 1.5% for the rest of the year, and that the job market would face potential pressure without support from the Fed. He said he supports a 25 basis point rate cut at the Fed's September meeting to strike a balance between the risk of persistently above-target inflation and the growing threat to the job market. "The labor market is softening, which suggests it could come under pressure without support," Jefferson said, adding that he expects inflation to begin to fall back to the Fed's 2% target level after this year. Jefferson noted that the impact of the Trump administration's trade, immigration and other policies is still evolving, so there is a particularly high degree of uncertainty in his baseline forecast. Although the impact of tariffs on inflation and other aspects of the economy has been less than some economists expected, Jefferson said he expects those effects "to become more apparent in the coming months." (Jinshi)