By Jon Hilsenrath 

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo.--Wall Street's big investment banks are out and the AFL-CIO is in this year at the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole Symposium.

William Spriggs, chief economist at the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, is among the attendees at the Fed symposium, an annual conference of global central bankers. The theme of this year's discussion is labor markets, and the Fed also invited Erica Groshen, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and a former New York Fed economist.

A long list of global central bankers are also in attendance, including European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda, Augustin Carstens of the Bank of Mexico, Alexandre Tombini from Brazil and Benjamin Broadbent, deputy governor at the Bank of England.

The invitation list is mostly devoid of representatives from big private-sector banks, with the exception of Jacob Frenkel, the former Bank of Israel governor who now is chairman of J.P. Morgan Chase International.

Economists and advisers from firms such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Corp. and other banks and hedge funds were long a staple at the Fed's annual meeting in the Wyoming mountains. But top Fed officials have grown uncomfortable in recent years with the advantages conferred on private-sector economists from attending the high-profile event, where the world's leading central bankers rub elbows with academics, journalists and others.

As a result, the Kansas City Fed, which organizes the symposium, has been paring the list of private-banker attendees.

"The primary audience for the Jackson Hole economic symposium has always been central bankers," Kansas City Fed spokeswoman Diane Raley said. "Based on the topic of discussion, the remainder of the available seats varies from year to year by considering participants who can bring relevant perspectives and insights to the topic discussion. This year's symposium focuses on labor markets, and the audience composition is designed to be a complement to this important public policy discussion and debate."

This year's list features a number of current and former members of the Obama administration, including Jason Furman, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, and Christina Romer, the former CEA chair. A number of regional Fed bank presidents, including New York Fed President William Dudley, also are in attendance.

One absence of note: Ksenia Yudaeva, first deputy governor of the Bank of Russia, was a last minute no-show.

Write to Jon Hilsenrath at jon.hilsenrath@wsj.com

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