MarketWatch (09/13/12) Steve Goldstein

The U.S. Federal Reserve is forecasting the unemployment rate will fall to a range of 7.6% to 7.9% in 2013 and to a range of 6.7% to 7.3% in 2014, from 8.1% in August. The Fed also for the first time forecast 2015 levels, when it sees the unemployment rate falling to a range of 6% to 6.8%. Federal Reserve members have shifted their thinking of when the first rate hike would be appropriate to 2015, according to the latest assessments released Thursday. There are now 12 of the 19 Federal Open Market Committee members who think the first hike will be in 2015; in June, only six felt 2015 was the correct time.