In this file photo taken on March 03, 2020, US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell gives a press briefing in Washington, DC. The US economy is a long way from a strong job market and the experience of past recessions shows it could take years to recover, Powell said on Feb 10, 2021. (ERIC BARADAT / AFP)

WASHINGTON – US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that it's important for the central bank to maintain a "patiently accommodative monetary policy stance" to boost the labor market recovery amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

"Despite the surprising speed of recovery early on, we are still very far from a strong labor market whose benefits are broadly shared," Powell said in prepared remarks delivered to The Economic Club of New York via webcast.

"Employment in January of this year was nearly 10 million below its February 2020 level, a greater shortfall than the worst of the Great Recession's aftermath," he said, adding both long-term unemployment and permanent job loss have also increased in recent months.

US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell stressed that in the near term, policies that bring the pandemic to an end as soon as possible are "paramount" for the country to get back to a strong labor market

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If counting those who have left the labor force since last February as unemployed, the real unemployment rate was close to 10 percent in January, higher than 6.3 percent reported by the Labor Department, according to Powell.

The Fed chief stressed that in the near term, policies that bring the pandemic to an end as soon as possible are "paramount" for the country to get back to a strong labor market.

"Also important is a patiently accommodative monetary policy stance that embraces the lessons of the past — about the labor market in particular and the economy more generally," Powell said, downplaying potential inflation risks from a strong labor market.

"Inflation has been much lower and more stable over the past three decades than in earlier times," he said, reiterating that the Fed will not tighten monetary policy solely in response to a strong labor market.

Powell also called for "a society-wide commitment" to return the labor market to full employment.

"Given the number of people who have lost their jobs and the likelihood that some will struggle to find work in the post-pandemic economy, achieving and sustaining maximum employment will require more than supportive monetary policy. It will require a society-wide commitment, with contributions from across government and the private sector," he said.

Roberto Perli, a former Fed staffer and now head of global policy research at Cornerstone Macro, believed that Powell's remarks signaled the central bank would not rush to exit from ultra-easy monetary policy.

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"Fears or expectations of an early removal of #Fed policy accommodation are very visible in markets and surveys these days. We can read Powell's speech today as a way to push back against such temptations. His words on the state of the labor market were very strong and dovish," Perli tweeted Wednesday.