Fed Chair Jerome Powell Says U.S. May Be Drastically Overstating Jobs Numbers

Fed Chair Jerome Powell pointed on Wednesday to a job-market risk that economists have been worried about for months: Official statistics could be drastically overstating recent hiring.

Powell said that Fed staffers believe that federal data could be overestimating job creation by up to 60,000 jobs a month. Given that figures published so far show that the economy has added about 40,000 jobs a month since April, the real number could be something more like a loss of 20,000 jobs a month, Powell said.

"We think there's an overstatement in these numbers," Powell said in a press conference following the central bank's two-day policy meeting.