With employers ramping up hiring and the unemployment rate sinking over the past year, pressure is rising on Janet Yellen's Federal Reserve: Is the time near to raise interest rates to prevent a strengthening economy from igniting inflation?, The Associated Press reported Saturday. The easy answer might be “yes.” Employers have added an average 244,000 jobs a month since February — the best six-month hiring spree in eight years. In addition, at 6.2 percent, the unemployment rate is just above the 6.1 percent average for the past seven decades. However, Yellen has made it clear that she monitors many gauges of the job market beyond hiring and unemployment and those other indicators point mostly in one direction: The job market still isn't at full health. The timing of the Fed's first rate increase is a high-risk decision — one that's put global stock and bond investors on nervous alert. If the Fed raises the short-term rate it controls too soon, it could derail the U.S. economy's gains. If it raises it too late, growth could overheat and inflation could surge. Even if the Fed gets the timing right, higher rates will mean higher borrowing costs for homes, cars and other loans. The stock market could sink, too. The Fed's benchmark rate has been near zero since December 2008.
