May 3 (Reuters) - Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Barkin on Monday said he believes the U.S. economy is still short of meeting the bar the central bank has set for considering any reduction in its bond-buying program. In an interview with CNBC, Barkin said he is closely tracking the employment-to-population ratio, which moved up to 57.8% in March from 57.4% in December; pre-pandemic it was at 61.1%. “It’s only modest progress,” Barkin said. “We have an outcome-based policy; when the outcomes look like substantial forward progress, that’s the time to talk about it” (Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Leslie Adler) Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.