(Bloomberg – Federal Reserve policymakers will likely follow through with a quicker tapering of asset acquisitions despite mixed signals on the labor-market recovery.

“The probability of an accelerated taper is going up,” said Thomas Costerg, senior U.S. economist at Pictet Wealth Management. “The Fed can’t ignore the unemployment rate falling to a mere 4.2%.”

The increase in payrolls was less than anticipated, with 210,000 fewer people reporting a rise last month after a revision of 546,000 for October. But the jobless rate dropped to 4.2% as employment rose by more than a million in the report’s household survey.

Jerome Powell, Fed Chair told Congress this week that the Fed should accelerate their taper at its Dec. 14-15 meeting. This would allow them to close it several months earlier than originally intended.  

This would allow the Federal Open Market Committee to increase rates sooner if necessary to reduce the inflation spike he and his colleagues predicted would continue into 2022. Multiple Fed officials spoke Thursday in support of a faster taper.

“This keeps the tapering train on track,” said Neil Dutta, head of U.S. economics at Renaissance Macro Research in New York, following the release of the jobs report. “They have opened the barn door too wide to pull back now. The tapering will likely end in March. They are more reactive to upside surprises in inflation than to downside surprises in employment.”

Fed officials may see the Fed’s employment report to confirm that there is still a labor-market recovery. The fourth quarter was marked by a slowdown due to growth caused by the delta variant. Powell warned this week about the possibility of a new Covid-19 strain, and noted that inflation risks have clearly increased.

The jobs report will be considered by policymakers, as well as a new look on consumer prices. They will also discuss the possibility of speeding the taper. In November, they decided to reduce bond purchases by $15 billion per month. This put them on track for wrapping up the process in mid-2022.

“I don’t think this report really changes anything from the Fed with regards to the labor market,” Jeffrey Rosenberg, senior portfolio manager for systematic fixed income at BlackRock Inc (NYSE:)., said on Bloomberg television Friday. “It’s still a strong labor market and strong labor market pricing and wages.”

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