There are few things that Yellen says the FED is still concerned about - one of them is the “abnormal high level of part-time employment”.

Earlier this month, the US Department of Labor announced that “the number of persons employed part time for economic reasons” - those who wanted a full time job and could not find one - “increased by 319,000 to 6.1 million in November, following declines in September and October.”

In an interview with the Guardian, the US Deputy Secretary of Labor Chris Lu dismissed that jump in part-time unemployed.

“We don’t focus too much on one month. This 319,000 is really significant drop from the month before. I don’t have the number of what it went down by in October, but if you look at the long-term trend, going back to 2010, it has gone down significantly,” Lu told the Guardian.

The number of Americans employed part-time for economic reasons in October was about 5.76m. In September, that number was a little more than 6m.

Lu is however, correct that the number has come down over the years. Just last year, in November 2014, the number of those working part-time jobs but wanting full time jobs was 6.85m. In 2012, that number was 8.1m.

When asked if the November jump in part-time workers was significant, Elise Gould, senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute also said that the number was not a reason for alarm.

“Those numbers are jumpy,” she told the Guardian.