##eleration in u. s. shelter prices. a surge in completions of multifamily housing has contributed to the sharp slowing of rent increases on new leases this year. that slowing will feed over time into a continued decline of inflation in rents and owners'equivalent rents ( the rents that homeowners forgo by living in their own homes rather than renting them out ), thus contributing importantly to the expected further reduction in overall u. s. inflation. in the u. s., labor supply, which fell because of the effects of the pandemic, has recovered significantly over the past two years, boosted by rebounds in labor force participation and immigration. the labor force participation rate, at 62. 7 percent in october, has increased by 0. 5 percentage point over the past 12 months, while participation of prime - age workers ( those 25 to 54 years of age ) has increased nearly twice as much. as a result, the prime - age participation rate is now above its prepandemic level and is near its highest point since 2002. the rise has been especially strong for prime - age women, whose participation recently reached a record - high level. over this year, payroll growth has slowed but remained strong. and a broad set of indicators show labor demand and labor supply coming into better balance. currently, there are 1. 5 job openings per unemployed worker. while still a high level historically, it is down from its peak of 2. 0 early last year and is much closer to the pre - pandemic ratio of 1. 2. quits, which soared during the pandemic, have fallen since early 2022 and were 2 / 6 bis - central bankers'speeches close to their 2019 average in july, an indication that workers are less certain of finding another job in a cooling labor market. the workweek, which rose to very high levels during the pandemic when firms could not find enough workers, has returned to prepandemic levels. and surveys of employers suggest that hiring and retention are not as difficult as they were last year. to be sure, it is a good thing that the easing in supply – demand imbalances in the labor market and the disinflation we are seeing thus far have taken place with only a modest increase in the unemployment rate, which was 3. 9 percent in october. as i have discussed, that favorable combination likely reflected an easing of supply constraints, including in the labor market. i am also

were rated aaa and another 1. 5 % were rated aa. while we can discuss the reasons for this trend, it is clear that the corporate bond market largely meets the needs of highly rated corporates. b. mode of issuance 21. the second issue relates to the mode of issuance. the large bulk of corporate bond issuances every year is through the private placement route rather than through public issuances. in fy 2021 - 22, the amount of money raised through public issuances of corporate bonds was ₹11, 589 crore – just about 2 % of the amount of source : https : / / www. sebi. gov. in money raised through private placement at ₹5. 88 lakh crore 11. the advantages of a public issuance in terms of transparency and efficiency of price discovery are well understood. sebi has been making efforts to make the private placement process more transparent and efficient, for example, through the introduction of the electronic bidding process on stock exchanges. nevertheless, there is an overwhelming preference for private placement. a hard look at the underlying issues including the reasons for issuers preferring to eschew the public issuance process is perhaps called for. c. investor profile 22. third, let us look at the investor base. the investor base for corporate bonds is, as can be expected given the market microstructure, largely dominated by domestic institutions – insurance companies, banks and mutual funds ( chart 8 ). retail participation in corporate bonds remains low – this in fact is a global trend. what is somewhat unique in india is that investors in debt oriented mutual funds – which is the avenue through which globally the retail investor participates in debt markets – are also largely institutional. foreign participation in corporate debt, has also not been favorable to secondary market activity. chart 8 : share in outstanding corporate bonds ( % ) - as at end of fy2022 10. 51 % 5. 49 % 13. 54 % 27. 57 % 15. 89 % 24. 51 % 2. 49 % bank body corporate foreign portfolio investor ( corporate ) mutual fund qualified institutional investors trust others source : sebi 23. the profile of the investor base for the corporate bond markets has had implications for some of the issues and concerns i have flagged earlier. i talked of the source : https : / / www. sebi. gov. in limited access of lower rated issuers to the corporate bond market for mobilising resources. part of the answer does