Fed Rate Hikes To Continue, CNN Business Reports

Wall Street investors are gearing up for their version of Hell Week — a torrent of jobs data coming over the next few days could easily lead to volatile market swings.

Photo Insert: In just one year, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates from nearly zero to a range between 4.5% and 4.75% to cool the economy.

The unflinching resilience of the US labor market is one of — if not the — greatest source of tension in today's economy, Nicole Goodkind reported for CNN Business.

Federal Reserve officials have said on numerous occasions that they believe elevated inflation rates will remain sticky until employment numbers, and the pace of wage increases, shift lower.

That means the Fed's already painful rate hikes are likely to continue until the job market simmers. But it's still boiling.

In just one year, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates from nearly zero to a range between 4.5% and 4.75% to cool the economy. Job numbers, meanwhile, have blown past expectations for the past 10 months.

The labor market is stronger than ever: The US added a shocking 517,000 jobs in January and knocked unemployment down to its lowest level since 1969.

Even as mass layoffs at companies like Facebook, Google, Goldman Sachs, Intel and Microsoft dominate headlines, job openings still outnumber job seekers by nearly 2 to 1.

"In order to put this episode of high inflation behind us, further policy tightening, maintained for a longer time, will likely be necessary," said San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly at Princeton University on Saturday.

"Absent a substantial pickup in the share of working-age adults looking to be employed or a large change in immigration flows, labor force participation will continue to decline and worker shortages will persist, pushing up wages and ultimately prices, at least in the near and medium term," she added.

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