One US politician just asked the Fed’s Yellen an impossible question
Janet Yellen just got a question that no-one can truthfully answer.
When representative Gregory Meeks asked Yellen to "identify the jobs" of the future, so that America can train workers accordingly, he was asking the impossible.
While Meeks spoke of how mechanisation has eliminated some positions, he was only able to do so with the gift of hindsight.
It's not possible to credibly guess what skills will be necessary 10 years down the line, and it's been more than 50 since the ATMs he referred to (which saw the loss of bank teller jobs) were invented.
Yellen's response was the best that could be given under the circumstances.
The new Fed chair said that "a stronger economy is going to create jobs in virtually every sector of the economy". What those jobs are going to be, we can't say.
She did identify one worrying trend.
There "is a growing skills gap and a growing wage inequality between more and less educated workers".
"Technological trends have reduced what used to be an important class of good, high paying wage jobs".
But all the Fed can do is "to promote stronger demand, and a strong jobs market generally".