According to the Wall Street Journal, after three years as second-in-command at the Federal Reserve, new Chairman Janet Yellen will now be faced with the big question: what should the central bank do about unemployment?
Among Ms. Yellen's most critical decisions is when to start lifting interest rates. If she and her colleagues wait too long, they could fuel high inflation or financial bubbles; if they move too soon, they could damp a recovery that is just gaining steam.
"The U.S. labor market is incredibly complicated and trying to summarize it with one number is hard," says David Stockton, the former head of the Fed's research division. "They got themselves into a situation where they are using the unemployment rate but they see a considerable number of reasons why they believe it is not a sufficient statistic."
