The Unsolved Jobs Mystery Facing the Fed

The Federal Reserve has had its foot on the gas for so long that the conventional wisdom says a tap of the brakes can’t be far away. But just when and how hard the Fed should hit those brakes is still the subject of furious debate. The right answer — what’s really best for the economy — depends in large part on how much “slack” there is in the labor market, and economists readily admit that’s a hard measure to gauge.