By Howard Schneider

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Chicago Federal Reserve said on Tuesday it had combined government and private data into a new estimate of the unemployment rate that would give policymakers faster-moving, twice monthly updates of a statistic central to the central bank’s current interest rate debate.

The new “real-time” set of labor market statistics, relying on the government’s Current Population Survey along with data from sources including payroll processor ADP, online job site Indeed, and Google, projects the unemployment rate most likely stayed stable in September at 4.3%.

The hiring rate for unemployed workers increased slightly, a bank press release said, but that was offset by a rise in layoffs and other job separations.

The estimate comes nearly two weeks before

See Full Page