have seen the strongest wage growth relative to other quartiles over the past two years. those workers have benefitted from the availability of jobs and, in many cases, the ability to move to better, higher - paying jobs in the current strong labor market. nonetheless, there are some signs that this strong labor market is softening at the margin. wage growth has moderated somewhat from the rates reached about a year ago. indicators of hiring have slowed. job openings, while still elevated, have declined in recent months. and the quits rate has retraced more than half of its pandemic - era rise, falling from a 3 percent peak in late 2021 to 2. 6 percent in february. that could be significant, as much of the surge in wage growth a year ago may have been driven by outsized wage gains of those changing jobs and by employers raising wages to retain existing workers. supply the wage moderation may partly reflect some improvement in labor supply. one factor is that new estimates show higher population growth over the past year amid a rebound in immigration from its reduced levels during the pandemic. labor force participation also has edged up to 62. 5 percent in the most recent data. prime - age participation ( for workers aged 25 to 54 ) is now back to pre - pandemic levels. in our series of fed listens events in 2019, when we talked with a wide range of people and community organizations, we heard that a strong labor market can pull in people from the sidelines who have skills that can be developed if given a chance. that appears to be happening now. the fed cannot directly act to increase supply in the economy, but supply is a key input to our economic outlook. one important source of increased supply is productivity growth, which comes through both capital investment and innovation. my hope is that we will see increased innovation and productivity associated with the spurt of new businesses that have opened since the onset of the pandemic. 3 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches supply - side issues, especially innovation and productivity, have been a theme of my own academic research, including papers on patents and on the growth and funding of small businesses. so i am so pleased to see many of your topics touching on these issues, often using novel data sets from a wide range of countries. international international issues are also an important area of research - - and open questions - - and have been another theme of my career. much of the recent inflation episode

inflation? 4 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches since my first federal open market committee ( fomc ) meeting last june, my approach has been one of data dependence. it has also taken into account risk management, which concedes that the federal reserve cannot eliminate risks but can manage them. this data - dependent, risk - management framework has led me to support the fomc's response of rapid monetary policy tightening - - we have raised interest rates 475 basis points in a year to bring inflation under control. currently, with the federal funds rate target near 5 percent, i am looking at what rate will be sufficiently restrictive to bring inflation down to 2 percent, over time. i am weighing the implications of stronger momentum in the economy apparent in economic indicators over the past few months against potential headwinds from recent banking developments. if tighter financing conditions are a significant headwind on the economy, the appropriate path of the federal funds rate may be lower than it would be in their absence. but if data show continued strength in the economy and slower disinflation, we may have more work to do. in setting monetary policy, i continue to be guided by our dual - mandate goals of maximum employment and price stability. i, like my colleagues on the fomc, am committed to bringing inflation back to its 2 percent target over time, which will lay the foundation for sustainable strength in the labor market and the u. s. economy. thank you. 1 the views expressed here are my own and not necessarily those of my colleagues on the federal open market committee. 5 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches