(Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Austan Goolsbee said policymakers’ top priority is returning inflation to its target and that they don’t want to “pre-commit” decisions on interest rates.

“We’ve got to get inflation down — that’s the No. 1 thing,” Goolsbee said Tuesday in an interview with CNBC. “I’m absolutely hammering that’s what we should be watching,” adding that the economic and job growth can’t be the key focus now. 

The Chicago Fed chief said he doesn’t like “pre-committing what the rates are going to be at the next meeting when we still have weeks to go and a lot of information to gather,” emphasizing that he’s part of the “data-dog caucus” scanning statistical releases for how the economy is reacting to the cumulative effects of interest-rate increases so far. 

Policymakers left rates unchanged in a range of 5.25% to 5.5% — a 22-year high — at their meeting last week and Chair Jerome Powell hinted that the central bank may be done raising interest rates. An increase in Treasury yields over the past few months was seen by some Fed officials as helping further restrain the economy.

Goolsbee repeated comments made last month that the Fed can continue down what he calls the “golden path” to a soft landing. 

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Friday showed broad labor-market cooling last month, with hiring dropping to 150,000, from 297,000 in September. Still, the unemployment rate remains near a multi-decade low. 

“The job market is getting into better balance,” he said. “So far, the slowdown is what you would want — is what you would expect.”

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.