Fed's Harker: Very little slack in labor market nationally, but masks regional disparities

Philly Fed President Patrick Harker delivered his prepared remarks, with key quotes, via Reuters, found below:,

• Very little slack in labor market nationally, but masks regional disparities.
• Labor force participation rate likely to drop couple tenths of a percentage point over next few years.
• Since growth is fundamentally growth in productivity plus growth in the labor force, there's a real incentive for us to get every last person off the sidelines that we possibly can.
• Other data - for instance, job openings and quits - also point to a pretty tight market.