low inflation. what does this mean for policy? my colleagues at the fomc and i have talked extensively about the nature of these changes and how we drew our conclusions. but, it ’ s important to apply these decisions to the current situation. the pandemic has presented us with extraordinary and devastating economic circumstances. the good news is that the economy has started to recover and the unemployment rate has come down. about half of the jobs lost during march and april have been regained. despite these improvements, we are nowhere near where we want to be : the total number of nonfarm jobs is still 10. 7 million below february ’ s level, and the unemployment rate is nearly 8 percent. these overall statistics mask the severity of the health and economic hardships felt by lowerincome families and communities of color as a result of the pandemic. to cite just a few statistics, the black unemployment rate is above 12 percent and the hispanic unemployment rate is over 10 percent, and black - owned businesses were shuttered at more than twice the rate of white - owned businesses during the early stages of the pandemic. 7 in terms of monetary policy, the appropriate focus right now is on getting the country back to work. for that reason, policy is supporting very low interest rates to provide stimulus to the economic recovery and keeping inflation expectations anchored at 2 percent. in thinking about the future path of policy, it is important to recognize that the pandemic engenders a unique and highly uncertain economic outlook. this is not a standard recession and the economic future is inextricably tied to the spread of the virus, people ’ s behavior in containing that spread, and the development of vaccines and therapeutics. given this uncertainty, transparency and flexibility in our policy approach will enable us to respond to changes in the outlook as they happen. indeed, these are key features of the forward 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches guidance we issued after the fomc meeting in september. 8 september ’ s fomc statement clearly linked our policy to the key elements of the new policy framework. in particular, it stated that the committee expects it will be appropriate to maintain the federal funds rate at its current target range until labor market conditions have reached levels consistent with the committee ’ s assessments of maximum employment and inflation has risen to 2 percent and is on track to moderately exceed 2 percent for some time. 9 by linking future policy actions to economic outcomes and ultimately our dual mandate goals, this

jean - pierre roth : foreign trade is switzerland ’ s growth driver summary of a speech by mr jean - pierre roth, chairman of the governing board of the swiss national bank and chairman of the board of directors of the bank for international settlements, at osec business network switzerland, zurich, 17 april 2008. the complete speech can be found in french on the swiss national bank ’ s website ( www. snb. ch ). * * * foreign trade has played a major role during the present economic cycle. over the past two years, it has made an exceptional contribution to gdp growth – with figures that bear comparison to the two upswing periods of the mid - 1980s and mid - 1990s. this strong export performance not only reflects a reorientation to accommodate the world economy ’ s new growth hubs, but is also the result of successful sector specialisation and the swiss export industry ’ s premium - quality positioning. switzerland ’ s watchmaking and pharmaceutical industries have been particularly impressive in this regard. thanks to the speed at which its export industry has been able to adapt to global demand, switzerland is well placed to benefit from the prevailing increase in earnings within the emerging markets. by specialising in the technology segment and tailoring its exports to customer needs, switzerland is not only able to reap the rewards of upswings in the global economic cycle. with the world economy now beginning to catch a cold from the slowdown in the us economy, the quality and competitiveness of our exports means that our companies are better equipped than others to hold their own in the global marketplace. foreign trade not only represents switzerland's growth driver, but it is also our friend when economic times are hard.