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Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Beth Hammack said she would weigh more economic information before the Federal Open Market Committee’s October 27–28, 2026, meeting. The September jobs report fit her view of a relatively stable labor market, but she stressed that one monthly report does not settle the policy question. Her comments were her own assessment—not an announcement of what the Fed will do.
What Hammack said about the September jobs report
In a PBS NewsHour interview on October 2, 2026, Hammack said the September employment report was broadly consistent with recent hiring trends. “I don’t make too much of any one individual report,” she told anchor Amna Nawaz, adding that she takes more signal from trends than from an individual data point. Read the PBS NewsHour interview transcript.
Hammack cited average payroll growth of 41,000 jobs per month over the preceding 12 months. She said that pace was largely in line with her estimate of break-even job growth—the pace at which employment growth keeps up with the labor force. That is her estimate, not a fixed threshold that applies regardless of economic conditions.
She called the unemployment rate the best single indicator of labor-market health, while recognizing that slow hiring can still be painful for people who are out of work. In the interview, she recounted that lower-income workers at a district roundtable described moving from trading down on groceries to choosing which bills to pay. That was her anecdotal account, not a representative measure of household finances.
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What the September numbers show—and what they do not
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ September 2026 Employment Situation release reported that payroll employment rose by 29,000 and the unemployment rate was 4.2%. The figures come from separate surveys: payroll employment is measured by the establishment survey, while unemployment is measured by the household survey. They describe different aspects of the labor market and should not be treated as interchangeable. See the BLS September 2026 release.
The payroll estimate was also revised for the two preceding months. July changed from a reported gain of 21,000 to a loss of 10,000; August changed from a gain of 162,000 to 133,000. Together, the revised estimates put employment in July and August 60,000 below what had previously been reported. The revisions reinforce why Hammack cautioned against reading too much into one preliminary monthly number.
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Average hourly earnings for private nonfarm employees rose 0.1% in September, to $37.81, and were 3.0% higher than a year earlier, according to the BLS. Employment changed little over the month in all major industries.
Why inflation remains central to Hammack’s view
The Fed’s mandate covers maximum employment and price stability. Hammack said she gave the employment side a “pretty good mark,” pointing to a labor market she viewed as relatively stable. But she identified inflation as her greater concern, saying inflation had missed the Fed’s 2% objective for more than 5.5 years and that bringing it back down remained important.
That balance helps explain why a soft hiring number does not automatically dictate a rate cut, just as persistent inflation does not by itself reveal what the committee will decide. Policymakers assess the two sides of the mandate alongside a broader set of economic information.
Hammack also described hearing from businesses that struggled to find skilled-trades workers, including electricians, amid data-center and construction demand. Those comments reflect regional conversations she reported in the interview; they are not a national estimate of labor shortages.
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What this means for the October rate decision
Hammack said there would still be substantial information available before the FOMC meeting at the end of October. The Federal Reserve calendar lists the meeting for October 27–28, 2026. Check the Federal Reserve’s FOMC calendar.
The October employment report was scheduled for November 6 at 8:30 a.m. ET—after the meeting—so it was not among the jobs data available to policymakers beforehand, according to the BLS release schedule. Other information could still arrive before the meeting, as Hammack said.
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Her interview did not signal a committee decision to hold rates steady or change them. It conveyed how one policymaker was interpreting the labor market and inflation, and why she wanted to consider the wider run of evidence before settling on the appropriate policy stance.
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