(Reuters) - Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Barkin on Thursday said that cooling in the U.S. labor market is coming from slower hiring rather than a rise in layoffs, allowing the central bank to figure out its next move.    "I'm actually pretty optimistic that over the next few months we're going to see good readings on the inflation side," Barkin said at a virtual event put on by the National Association for Business Economics. "I think you've got some time in a healthy economy to figure out whether this is an economy that's gently moving into a normalizing state that will allow you to, in a steady deliberate way, normalize rates or... is this one where you really do have to lean into it."