and leisure and hospitality categories. when we look at the northern part of the state, we see a greater concentration of jobs in finance, particularly in hudson county. also prominent are goods distribution jobs related to the ports, rail lines, trucking and warehousing. other large sectors include pharmaceuticals manufacturing and research and development, as well as private education. looking at recent trends in northern new jersey, the recovery in the economy in general – and in employment in particular – is lagging the nation and is not going as well as we would like. the garden state ’ s economy lost a quarter of a million jobs during the recession, and employment didn ’ t begin to recover until 2011, and even then it was slow getting started. however, the latest annual employment revisions – released just a few weeks ago – show job gains in 2013 and 2014 were a bit stronger than previously reported. nevertheless, four years into the recovery, employment has recovered less than two - thirds of the job losses from the recession. this contrasts notably with both new york state and the u. s. as a whole, where employment has far surpassed its earlier peaks. moreover, here in essex county, there has yet to be any significant upturn in jobs, although neighboring hudson county has seen a fairly strong rebound. bis central bankers ’ speeches that ’ s not to say that there aren ’ t any strong industry sectors here in new jersey : job growth has been quite robust in health services, transportation and warehousing, construction and a number of business service industries. there has also been steady job creation in retail trade and leisure and hospitality, though these tend to be low - paying sectors. on the other hand, employment remains depressed in other industries such as finance, publishing, telecommunications and manufacturing. so why is new jersey not keeping pace with new york in terms of job growth? well, much of the strength in new york state has been driven by new york city ; other parts of the state have seen similar, if not weaker, job growth than new jersey. of course, this raises the question : why has new york city ’ s economy been so much stronger? in fact, there is a body of research suggesting that the long - term drift of economic activity and jobs from cities to suburbs has subsided, and that there is a growing trend toward re - urbanization – a preference for both people and businesses to locate in cities, like new york. yet there is also a strong tendency for persistent strength in an urban hub to

##ncy? a common denominator for all policy makers at the moment is the lingering uncertainty. many scenarios are in place, from smooth and orderly recovery, through strong rebound with price pressures, ending to stalled recovery amidst new and more virulent strains. from a central bank perspective, our advantage is that there is still policy room for maneuver, although narrowed. our policy rate is still in a positive territory at a level of 1. 25 %, alternative instruments are available for targeted actions, the level of foreign reserves remains comfortable and the banking system stable with npls ratio of only 3. 4 %, despite the pandemics shock and closure of a bank in the midst of the pandemics. of course we have to be vigilant, and not only of conventional side effects of " too loose for too long " stance, but also of the possible adverse feedback 1 / 2 bis - central bankers'speeches loop between real and financial sector, as well as of the so called " zombification " risk. as complacency is not an option, shielding against those risks asks for further strengthening of the financial safety net, which will remain one of our priorities. thus, although still overwhelmed with the current challenges and the need for further policy support, we must not remain oblivious to the pre – pandemic strivings to increase the potential to grow faster, but in a sustainable and inclusive way. this requires gradual shifting of the focus back to the pre - crisis structural bottlenecks such as the quality of institutions, strengthening the rule of law, investing in human capital and in the potential to innovate, as well as to new structural hurdles that will be left as a legacy of the pandemics, which might not be even well known at the current juncture. clearly, we as central banks cannot play a main role in these segments, but perhaps a supporting one. in this context, despite many burning issues, we have managed to keep the focus on more structural issues such as digitalization by working on the first national fintech strategy, and on green finance by becoming a member of the international network for greening the financial system and conducting the first survey on the current status of the green finance. all these should ensure sustainable and inclusive recovery, while confirming our strong commitment to adopting the eu standards and best practices that should enable faster convergence. thank you! 2 / 2 bis - central bankers'speeches