Atlanta Fed boss says stiff interest rate hikes won’t slam US job market

Atlanta Federal Reserve president Raphael Bostic said there is a “really good chance” that the US job market won’t take a severe hit as a result of the stiff interest rate hikes coming from the central bank.

“It’s going to be hard, it’s not going to be easy,” Bostic said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday morning. But “there is a really good chance that if we have job losses, it will be smaller than what we’ve seen in other situations.”

Bostic’s optimistic comments come in response to the Fed raising rates by 0.75 percentage points last week, which he said can help achieve the central bank’s goal of 2% inflation without severely damaging the economy.

“We’re still creating lots of jobs on a monthly basis. And so I actually think that there is some ability for the economy to absorb our actions,” Bostic added. “My expectation is that as we move along and we start to get inflation more under control.”

At his bank’s home in Atlanta, Bostic reported seeing “considerable job growth.”

Bostic said he still sees “positive momentum” in the American economy despite many labeling it as in recession after two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth.

“I do think that we’re going to do all that we can at the Federal Reserve to avoid deep, deep pain,” Bostic told “Face the Nation.”

The current inflation rate sits at over 8.3%.