Looking ahead to 2014

Goldman’s Hatzius: Expect steady growth in 2014

Hatzius: Good jobs report, not a blockbuster
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Hatzius: Good jobs report, not a blockbuster

The U.S. economy should see steady growth in 2014 as fiscal drags relax and the country continues to see positive employment reports similar to the one released Friday, Goldman Sachs' chief economist Jan Hatzius told CNBC on Friday.

Hatzius said next year should bring monthly job reports hovering around 225,000 gains in nonfarm payroll positions. Despite strong signs of recovery, the Federal Reserve won't begin to taper is massive bond-buying program until March, and there won't be drastic reductions, he said on "Squawk on the Street."

"They still want to be easy," Hatzius said. "At the moment they are pretty comfortable at easing. As they look at where the market still is and where inflation numbers are, they do think easy policy is appropriate."

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Hatzius expects the economy to grow by 2.9 percent in 2014, followed by 3.2 percent in 2015 and 3.0 for the two years after that, according to his outlook note. Europe and Japan will also see growth, but much less than the United States, and the U.S. should "lead the acceleration of global growth in 2014," the note said.

Tagespiegel/Goldman Sachs | Wikipedia

It remains unclear what level of unemployment would cause the Fed to begin tapering, Hatzius said.

"The jury is still out," Hatzius said. "I don't know they're going to give us very ironclad guidance on that, at least not in the very near term."

(Read more: Market sending message to Fed about the future)

The Federal Open Market Committee, which meets Dec. 17-18, will also look at inflation before making such a decision, and currently low wage inflation levels suggest a less-than-friendly job market.

(Read more: Yes, more jobs, butwage growth holds up recovery)

"It does indicateand I think still even with a 7 percent headline on unemploymentquite a bit of slack in the labor market," Hatzius said.

(Read more: US stocks climb on upbeat jobs report and rise in consumer confidence)

— By CNBC's Jeff Morganteen. Follow him on Twitter at @jmorganteen and get the latest stories from "Squawk on the Street"

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