Fed's Plosser: Weak jobs market a serious challenge

Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Charles Plosser speaks at an Economics21 event in New York, March 25, 2011.

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The September jobs report was "a bit of positive news", but the pace of jobs growth is still too slow to make a significant dent in the unemployment rate, a Federal Reserve policymaker said on Wednesday.

"Conditions in labor markets remain a serious challenge," Charles Plosser, president of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank, told students at the Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center at Wharton.

"Given the weak growth in employment so far this year, we have not made even the modest progress on reducing unemployment rates that many forecasters had anticipated," he said.

U.S. employers hired more workers than expected in September, according to the Labor Department's employment report released earlier this month. Job gains for the prior two months were revised higher, easing recession fears, but the unemployment rate remained stuck at 9.1 percent for a third straight month.

"As the economy strengthens, prospects for labor markets will continue to improve and the unemployment rate will gradually decline, undoubtedly too gradually for many of us," he said.

With the exception of his comments on the September jobs report, Plosser's prepared remarks were similar to a speech given on September 29 in Radnor, Pennsylvania.

Plosser is a noted 'hawk' on inflation and a voting member of the Fed's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee this year. He dissented from the Fed's decisions in August and September to further loosen monetary policy to support a sputtering economic recovery.

(Reporting by Kristina Cooke, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)