workforce development initiative that will gather up - to - date perspectives from employers and organizations engaged in worker training and education. this initiative will include a series of regional reserve bank meetings, a publication on effective investments and outcomes, and a capstone conference in october in austin, texas. - 8on the knowledge and experience of our staff. in discussing the examples, i would like to make five points. first, it is crucial for younger workers to establish a solid connection to employment early in their work lives. the federal reserve ’ s 2013 survey of young workers found that 18 - to 30 - year - olds with early work experience were more likely to emerge from the recent recession with a permanent job. 19 other studies have found that students who worked 20 hours per week in their senior year of high school earned higher wages later in life than those who did not, and that summer youth employment programs improved participants ’ attitudes toward their communities, raised their academic aspirations, and boosted their job readiness skills. 20 the findings point to some of the reasons that the boston fed decided to lend technical support to a pilot program called pocket change, which aims to reduce unemployment among low - income 18 - to 24 - yearolds in somerville, massachusetts, through internships, training in job skills, and reinforcement of important soft skills such as punctuality and effective communication. in its first two years, the initiative trained 53 low - income young people and placed 20 of them in jobs. the results of this modest program indicate the promise of efforts that the survey found that 82 percent of workers who had worked for pay during high school had a permanent job - - 4 percentage points higher than for all workers combined. see board of governors of the federal reserve system ( 2014 ), in the shadow of the great recession : experiences and perspectives of young workers ( washington : board of governors, november ), https : / / www. federalreserve. gov / econresdata / 2013 - experiences - and - perspectives - of - young - workers201411. pdf. baum and ruhm ( 2016 ) do observe, however, that these gains from employment during the senior year of high school have diminished substantially relative to earlier cohorts. see charles l. baum and christopher j. ruhm ( 2016 ), “ the changing benefits of early work experience, ” southern economic journal, vol. 83 ( october ), pp. 343 - 63. - 9focus on first - time work experiences,

at all times. for emerging markets, this means a strong banking sector. in the current crisis, it is the strength of the banking sector that has enabled the asian economies to cope more successfully with the impact of the global crisis. these strengths are underpinned by the sector ’ s strong capital base, its limited exposure to subprime - related and other toxic assets, and its low reliance on external funding. such strength and qualities are no accident. they are the results of deliberate policies to reform the financial system, strengthen supervision of financial institutions, and revamp financial regulation, risk management, and governance after the asian financial crisis. the point i want to stress here is that these are the qualities that helped us through the current global financial crisis and they are the qualities that we need to keep. the fourth lesson is the benefits to long - term growth and stability that come from disciplined policy management and the pursuance of policy that enhances flexibility in the economic system. the 1997 – 1998 crisis has been an important lesson for asia on this point. disciplined policy reduces the risk of an internally - induced crisis due to policy error and provides the authorities with greater room and flexibility to deal with unexpected events or shocks. in the current crisis, the ability of many asian economies to respond aggressively to the impact of the crisis without undermining policy credibility is a case in point. from my own experience, policy discipline relates closely to decisions that are made with a long - term perspective. the lack of discipline more than often reflects policy that focuses overwhelmingly on short - term outcome. in economics, emphasis on short - term outcome tends to reduce volatility initially but a cost of a much larger volatility and welfare loss at a later date as the needed adjustment is postponed. a long - term perspective, on the other hand, allows the adjustment to be spread out with lesser volatility and effects on economic welfare. next, enhancing flexibility in the economy through policy that raises the role of the price mechanism in the allocation of resources is another crucial policy choice that can make important differences to the economies of emerging markets. again, we in asia learned this lesson well in the 1990 ’ s. since then, reform of the policy regime to increase flexibility, especially the exchange rate, has contributed importantly to greater resiliency and abilities of the economies in asia to adjust to changes in the external environment. so, the fact that the asian economies have done better this time is not only because of the policy response during