Bloomberg Surveillance · Thursday, July 2, 2026
Economist Claudia Sam believes the labor market is close to the Federal Reserve's maximum employment mandate and that the current focus on inflation is appropriate. She notes that wage growth is not keeping pace with inflation, suggesting no signs of overheating or labor shortages that could fuel further inflation.
“At this moment, having a focus on inflation makes a lot of sense. It is the it is the problem. I think we could say the labor markets probably pretty close to where the FEDS maximum employment mandate is.”
“So, on average wages are not keeping up with inflation right now. Now that comes in large part because we've seen a surge in inflation this year, right and there's already signs with oil prices coming down that we are probably at the high water mark on in flat”
“We don't see signs of overheating. We don't see signs of labor shortages, wages picking up in a way that they could be creating even more cost more inflation, and that's something that the Feed is keeping a really careful eye on. That is not a problem we have right now.”