(Reuters) – Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Neel Kashkari on Friday said he expects recent high inflation readings will not last, and Americans will return to the labor market in large numbers by the fall.
“We should see a lot more labor supply in the fall,” Kashkari said in a virtual event hosted by the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and the Minnesota Council of Foundations, once the three main factors holding back labor supply – school and daycares closed, fear of the virus, and extra unemployment benefits provided by Congress – have faded.
He said that in general he is a “big skeptic” of employers who complain of worker shortages, saying a large part of it is a reluctance to raise wages.
(Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
