, but after progress in bringing demand and supply into better balance in 2023, this rebalancing seemed to stall at the beginning of this year. then in the past month or two, the easing of demand, relative to supply seems to have resumed. the hiring rate, reported by the labor department, slowed relative to the previous three months. in march, the share of workers who voluntarily quit their jobs declined, with the quits rate falling below pre - pandemic levels. this is a sign that fewer workers are jumping to a new and usually higher - paying job. that means firms are in less need to fill vacancies and offer relatively high starting salaries, something that could support moderating wage increases. job creation fell from 315, 000 in march to 175, 000 in april. a big reason for the decline was a sharp drop in the pace of job creation by state and local governments that is unlikely to be repeated, but private sector job creation also fell, another indication that demand for workers continues to slow. that was also the message i take from the unemployment rate in april, which ticked up to 3. 9 percent. it was the 27th consecutive month that unemployment has been below 4 percent, the longest stretch in decades, but it stands noticeably higher than the 3. 4 percent rate last april. meanwhile, the ratio of job vacancies to people looking for work fell to 1. 3, just a tenth of a point above the pre - pandemic level and a sign that the relative shortage of workers related to the pandemic is close to over. 2 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches wage growth is still a bit higher than i believe is needed to be consistent with our 2 percent target, but it's not that high and recent average hourly earnings data suggest that wage growth is moderating. and some measures of wage growth that tend to be forward - looking have also continued to slow on balance. just like the data on economic activity, i see the labor market data supporting renewed progress in lowering inflation, so now let me turn to the outlook for inflation. last week's report on consumer price index ( cpi ) inflation in april was a welcome relief after three months without progress toward 2 percent. that said, the progress was so modest that it did not change my view that i will need to see more evidence of moderating inflation before supporting any easing of monetary policy. if i were still a professor and had to assign a grade to this

. introducing a cbdc would create additional competition in the market for payment services, because the general public could use cbdc accounts to make payments directly through the federal reserve — that is, a cbdc would allow the general public to bypass the commercial banking system. deposits would flow from commercial banks into cbdc accounts, which would put pressure on banks to lower their fees, or raise the interest rate paid on deposits, to prevent additional deposit outflows. 13 it seems to me, however, that private - sector innovations might reduce the markup charged by banks more effectively than a cbdc would. 14 if commercial banks are earning rents from their market power, then there is a profit opportunity for nonbanks to enter the payment business and provide the general public with cheaper payment services. and, indeed, we are currently seeing a surge of nonbanks getting into payments. for example, in recent years, “ stablecoin ” arrangements have emerged as a particularly important type of nonbank entrant into the payments landscape. stablecoins are digital assets whose value is tied to one or more other assets, such as a sovereign currency. a stablecoin could serve as an attractive payment instrument if it is pegged one - to - one to the dollar and is backed by a safe and liquid pool of assets. 15 if one or more stablecoin arrangements can develop a significant user base, they could become a major challenger to banks for processing payments. importantly, payments using such stablecoins might be “ free ” in the sense that there would be no fee required to initiate or receive a payment. 16 accordingly, one can easily imagine that competition from stablecoins could pressure banks to reduce their markup for payment services. please note that i am not endorsing any particular stablecoin — some of which are not backed by safe and liquid assets. the promise of redemption of a stablecoin into one u. s. dollar is not perfectly credible, nor have they been tested by an actual run on the stablecoin. there are many legal, regulatory, and policy issues that need to be resolved before stablecoins can safely proliferate. 17 my point, however, is that the private sector is already developing payment alternatives to compete with the banking system. hence, it seems unnecessary for the federal reserve to create a cbdc to drive down payment rents. 3 / 6 bis central bankers'speeches returning to possible problems a cbdc could solve, it is often