Bloomberg Businessweek (10/20/14) Victoria Stilwell

A lack of data on whether the employed are overqualified for their jobs or want to work more hours is preventing U.S. Federal Reserve officials from accurately assessing the health of the labor market. The significant underutilization of labor resources is likely more severe than currently estimated.

“We have more slack than the official statistics suggest,” said Michelle Meyer, a senior U.S. economist at Bank of America Corp. “Because it’s difficult to measure underutilization, there’s still a lot of uncertainty as to how much slack remains, which means there’s uncertainty as to the appropriate stance of monetary policy.”