superstorm sandy caused substantial damage to homes and the region ’ s infrastructure and severe economic disruptions in late 2012, the local economy as a whole bounced back quickly. despite the robust job growth, the unemployment rate among city residents has been persistently high – though it did fall to 8. 0 percent in december, nearly a 5 - year low. potential workers are not counted as unemployed unless they are actively looking for work, so this relatively high rate of unemployment, in part, reflects the relative strength in labor force participation, as the city ’ s residents remain engaged and looking for work. in contrast, at the national level, the picture is quite different – job growth has been slower and proportionately more people have dropped out of the labor force. perhaps surprisingly, while historically a key driver of the local economy, the finance sector has not been a leader in terms of job growth recently. instead, employment in new york city ’ s finance sector and the securities industry specifically, has been essentially flat over the past two years. the city ’ s job gains in this expansion have been broad - based across other sectors, indicating a healthy diversification within the economy. conditions in brooklyn now let ’ s focus on brooklyn. the borough ’ s economy has been particularly strong in recent years. compared with the other boroughs, brooklyn has seen generally stronger job growth, a stronger housing market, and stronger trends in wage and salary earnings. this strength is exemplified by the transformation of industrial neighborhoods – such as dumbo, red hook, greenpoint, east williamsburg, gowanus and bushwick – into increasingly diversified residential and commercial neighborhoods ; and the recent development of the atlantic yards and brooklyn navy yard. this changing landscape has helped spur economic activity which has created many new jobs in the borough. indeed, employment held up well during the recession, declining by less than 2 percent over a brief period in early 2009, and has averaged a nearly 3 percent annualized growth rate since then. job growth has been particularly strong at retailers, hotels and restaurants, and also service firms ranging from advertising to engineering. that said, the employment picture does have some difficulties. for example, there is concern over some well - paying health sector jobs given the financial strain at long island college hospital and interfaith medical center and the pressure to close those institutions. brooklyn ’ s economic vitality is also reflected in the commercial real estate market, as both office and retail vacancy rates have fallen steadily over the past few years. in fact, office

it includes a set of private - sector market participants. the bis fxwg formed a market participants group ( mpg ) which includes representatives across the globe and includes the sell - side, buy - side, and market infrastructure communities. the regional fx committees are also integrally involved in the work. issues addressed by best practices let me now highlight how, in my experience working with new york fed - sponsored committees, best practices can play an important role in addressing a range of issues. for example, best practices can identify emerging risks, solve “ first - mover ” problems, challenge long - established practices, improve market function, and assist control functions. collaboration between market participants and central banks in groups like the tmpg or the fxc can promote identification of evolving or emerging risks and resulting best practices can publicize those risks, and suggest mitigants for them, to the broader market. for example, the fxc, recognizing the risks associated with the increased use of automated trading, published a set of recommendations in 2006 around “ auto - dealing ” in fx markets. the tmpg provided similar guidance in 2015. 12 importantly, best practices can be a way to resolve first - mover problems. for instance, a sizeable portion of the non - centrally cleared forward - settling agency mbs transactions prior to 2013 remained unmargined, posing counterparty risk in the event one trading party were to default, and potentially systemic risk to the overall financial system. margining such transactions is a common and sensible way to reduce counterparty exposures and systemic risk. however, no market participant wanted to be the first to begin charging margin out of several examples in the fx and fixed income markets illustrate that best practices would not be successful without the undeniable support of market participants. for instance, reduction is settlement risk due to the adoption of payment - versus - payment mechanisms, drop in settlement fails in u. s. treasury markets after the implementation of the fails charge, and improvements in the derivatives markets infrastructure are just a few examples. the bis effort to develop an fx global code and the bank of england ’ s leadership of the fair and effective markets review are two examples of this public - private partnership. automated trading has also been the focus of significant regulatory attention in the united states and elsewhere over the last several years. see, for example, the commodities futures trading commission ’ s proposed rules on “ regulation automated trading, ” the recent financial industry regulatory authority ( finra ) amendment to the