It's more about inflation. The Fed has stated that they don't get those low interest rates back until they fire a lot of people and drive up unemployment. EDIT

It's more about inflation. The Fed has stated that they don't get those low interest rates back until they fire a lot of people and drive up unemployment. EDIT: from the Chair himself > We’re never going to say that there are too many people working, but the real point is this: Inflation—what we hear from people when we meet with them is that they really are suffering from inflation. And if we want to set ourselves up, really light the way to another period of a very strong labor market, we have got to get inflation behind us. I wish there were a painless way to do that. There isn’t. So, what we need to do is get rates up to the point where we’re putting meaningful downward pressure on inflation, and that’s what we’re doing. https://www.federalreserve.gov/mediacenter/files/FOMCpresconf20220921.pdf https://www.federalreserve.gov/mediacenter/files/FOMCprescon... This is hardly just his opinion either and has been pretty widely covered across the media. https://time.com/6253699/federal-reserve-inflation-interest-rates-workers/ https://time.com/6253699/federal-reserve-inflation-interest-... https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/07/perspectives/inflation-jobs-recession-rubenstein/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/07/perspectives/inflation-jobs-r... https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/10/12/does-the-fed-want-you-to-lose-your-job-its-complicated/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/10/12/does-the-f... https://www.businessinsider.com/jerome-powell-fed-jobs-unemployment-nonfarm-payrolls-inflation-markets-economy-2023-3 https://www.businessinsider.com/jerome-powell-fed-jobs-unemp...