FOM minutes show Fed focus shifting to employment

Employment was a focal point for the Federal Reserve’s most recent monetary policy deliberations, with officials expressing various levels of concern about its outlook.

Policymakers were united in their view that interest rates should remain unchanged during last month’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting, but divides were apparent on several key considerations and the group’s path ahead, according to minutes released Wednesday afternoon.

The minutes, which summarize discussions from the two-day meeting in loose terms, note that a “few participants” viewed labor market risks as “having become predominant.” These views were based, in part, on conversations with business contacts who said they had put hiring on pause in response to rising economic uncertainty.

The FOMC is the Fed’s…