WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says that despite solid economic progress, the country still faces a number of challenges including slow wage-growth for lower-income workers to sluggish productivity and an aging population.
Powell said Monday that these challenges remain even though progress has been made by reducing unemployment to a near five-decade low and bolstering the financial system after the 2008 financial crisis.
Powell says that while there have been recent gains in wage growth, wages for lower-income workers have grown quite slowly over the past few decades.
He says a decadeslong decline in economic mobility has made it more difficult for lower-income Americans to move up the economic ladder.
In his remarks, Powell praised the work of the Fed's community development staff and former Fed Chair Janet Yellen.
