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The unresolved issue now is whether that so-called "natural" rate of unemployment has risen either temporarily or permanently, and whether tradeoffs between inflation and unemployment - thought to have faded as a concern - will now bind policymakers.

While most Fed policymakers estimate full employment to be around 4.5%, “my own instinct is that the natural rate of unemployment is higher,” Powell said last month.

I fear the idea of a “natural rate of unemployment” will come back with a vengeance unless we banish it.

“This is the perfect employment report for the Fed to continue to run the economy ‘hot’, as views on the natural rate of unemployment continue to drop,” said Alan Ruskin, Deutsche Bank’s global head of FX strategy.

“I would look at today’s level of unemployment as well within the range of potential estimates — of plausible estimates — of what the natural rate of unemployment is,” Powell told Congress in July.