More: Altogether, Powell said, central bankers see "a degree of stability" in the labor market.

"But the thing that I think a good number of people on the committee are concerned about is just the very, very low level of job creation," Powell said in a press conference following the Fed's decision to hold interest rates steady.

"Effectively, there's zero net job creation in the private sector," after accounting for revisions over the past six months, Powell said. "But actually, that looks like that's about what the economy needs, in terms of dealing with very, very low " nonexistent, really " growth in the labor force, which of course we've never had in our history."