efforts range from the building of new advanced distribution centers, expansion of home - delivery service and online shopping, to active openings of new convenience stores and shopping malls. there also have been active moves to strengthen the economy ’ s growth potential by capturing local demand overseas, such as development of overseas business in the retail, wholesale, and service industries as well as acquisition of firms. labor and employment conditions have also continued to improve as a trend. on the back of proceeding with their positive efforts, firms are increasing their demand for labor and their stance on employment is becoming active ( chart 8 ). looking back on the past year, a sense of labor shortage among nonmanufacturing firms has heightened further, and labor supply and demand conditions at manufacturing firms have also tightened, recently turning to a state of labor shortage. in terms of the quality of employment, firms have gradually been making a shift to hiring part - time workers as full - time, regular workers, mainly based on the need to secure competent human resources ( chart 9 ). as for wage developments, the year - on - year rate of change in scheduled cash earnings has turned positive due to a rise in base pay at many firms, and special cash earnings have also steadily increased, due mainly to a rise in summer bonus payments. as a result, employee income – that is, wages per employee multiplied by the number of employees – has been increasing by about 2 percent year on year ( chart 10 ). with regard to labor supply conditions, the labor force participation rate that had been on a declining trend, mainly due to the demographic situation, bottomed out in 2012 and is moving bis central bankers ’ speeches toward a pick - up ( chart 11 ). breaking down the labor force participation rate by gender and age, the rising trend in the participation rate of women is particularly prominent, and an increasing trend is also becoming evident in recent years for men, especially in the age category of 65 – 74 years ( chart 12 ). this seems to reflect initiatives taken by firms amid a general sense of labor shortage to encourage the participation of female workers by introducing flexible working systems such as shorter working hours, and also to promote the employment of the elderly in order to pass on their skills and knowledge to younger workers. however, it will be necessary to wait for data to accumulate for some time before making a judgment on whether such improvements in the labor force participation rate are mainly temporary and cyclical ones, brought about by the economic recovery, or due to sustainable and

the credit approval process should, for example, prevent over - indebtedness. the features and conditionalities of financial products should be clearly communicated. transparency in information and pricing should be the key principle in marketing and client dealings. client - focused banking further means treating consumers, regardless of their economic standing, with fairness, dignity and respect in all phases of transactions. this requires ensuring the integrity and confidentiality of client information. it also necessitates measures that prevent fraud or abuse. for example, staff training in good customer service is important. incentivizing ethical behavior can positively reinforce staff honesty and reliability. treating clients with respect at all times, of course entails quite a lot of patience and tolerance, but this will surely endear you more to your clients. another important element of client - focused banking is a straightforward mechanism for complaints resolution. we at the bangko sentral, encourage banks to institutionalize a system of redress that immediately addresses customer concerns. it is essential that your clients know where or who to complain to within your institution. bis central bankers ’ speeches complaints should be viewed in a positive light. the complaints or negative comments that you receive provide insight to what might be amiss in your products or policies, or to what you might be doing wrong in your operations. providing a formal avenue for complaints, even just a humble “ suggestion box ” in a corner of your branches, is one way for the bank to listen and learn directly from clients. information from complaints often carry implications or suggestions for the improvement of product design, delivery, branding, marketing, communications, even for governance and decision - making. as bill gates once said, “ your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. ” when you make your unhappy customers happy, you ultimately benefit from preserving a reputation that your bank cares. the bangko sentral has established a dedicated unit that attends to complaints against our supervised institutions, the financial consumer affairs group ( fcag ). among the complaints that fcag has received is on credit cards, because clients misunderstood or were unaware of the “ fine prints ” about the fees and charges on their credit card contracts. thus bsp circular 702 dated 15 december 2010 was issued to address, among others, the disclosure of all fees linked to credit card transactions. this is just a simple example of how customer complaints can inform policymaking. your institutions too, can leverage on complaints information in the same way. while you implement institutional procedures to ensure consumer protection and