Rebecca Picciotto
CNBC
September 7, 2024
- Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that she believes the U.S. economy is healthy and that recent months of cooler jobs data is a signal of a soft landing, not a recession.
- Yellen said the U.S. is not seeing meaningful layoffs and the economy is “deep into a recovery.”
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen speaks listens to a presentation during a tour at the IRS Processing Facility on September 06, 2024 in Austin, Texas.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sought to reassure the public on Saturday that the U.S. economy remains strong, despite a string of weak job reports that have rattled investors and weighed on the stock market.
“We’re seeing less frenzy in terms of hiring and job openings, but we’re not seeing meaningful layoffs,” Yellen said at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin. “I’m attentive to downside risk now on the employment side, but what I think we’re seeing, and hope we will continue to see, is a good, solid economy.”
Yellen said job growth has slowed compared to the “hiring frenzy” when the U.S. reopened after the Covid-19 pandemic, but the economy is “deep into a recovery” and “basically operating at full employment.”