relative to the supply of workers in some service sectors encouraged workers to move from job to job for higher wages, benefits, and other improvements in working conditions. evidence from the atlanta fed ’ s wage growth tracker suggests that during this period, wages for job switchers grew more than 2 percentage points faster than wages for people staying in the same job, though this wage premium for job switchers disappeared by the second half of last year. but now inflation for services excluding housing is declining, after a temporary escalation in the first quarter of this year that was likely partly due to residual seasonality. there had been fears that wage increases would drive a wage – price spiral, as the u. s. experienced in the 1970s, but this did not occur. to sum up, inflation has broadly moderated as the supply of goods and services has improved, and as producers and consumers have adjusted to the effects of higher prices. demand has moderated, in part due to tighter monetary policy. and, as i just noted, changes in the pace of wage growth have also played an important role in the ups and downs of inflation, which points me toward a discussion of labor markets, which has recently become a greater focus of monetary policy. as i have noted, there has been a significant moderation in the labor market recently, but i want to start by pointing to what really has been a remarkable performance of the labor market over the past four years. after the unprecedented job losses early in the pandemic, and even accounting for the quick recovery of a large share of those losses, the recovery of the labor market that followed was historically swift. unemployment was 7. 8 percent in september 2020 and 4. 7 percent only 12 months later, and it fell to under 4 percent 3 months after that. that is a more rapid recovery than the u. s. has experienced - 8since the 1960 ’ s. what started, at that point, was 30 straight months of unemployment at or below 4 percent, which had not happened during the pre - pandemic period, the boom of the 1990s, or anytime during the 1980s, and it was only exceeded by the strong labor market of the latter half of the 1960s. something that i think was just as remarkable has been the narrowing of the typical gap between labor market outcomes for less - advantaged groups. for example, there has been a reduction in the unemployment rate between black and latino workers, on the one hand, and white workers, on the

which is a cornerstone of mexico ’ s macroeconomic policy. complementary tools to face adverse shocks : global financial safety net let me now move to another relevant message. aside from having sound economic 3 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches fundamentals, developing deep, liquid and resilient financial markets and using policy tools to address financial market volatility, there are other lines of defense to cope with financial shocks, market volatility, and capital flows, which can serve as a complement of international reserves. i am referring to the global financial safety net ( gfsn ). some of the tools of the gfsn certainly proved to be critical during the covid - 19 shock in promoting stability and an adequate functioning of financial markets : swap lines from the federal reserve and the european central bank alleviated funding pressures in reserve currencies at times of stress. money markets were strongly impacted and benefited significantly from these measures. repo lines from the federal reserve also proved to be a valuable backstop for central banks with no access to swap lines, as they prevented further fixed - income asset fire sales under stress. imf programs, four latin american countries extended or acquired flexible credit lines, and others used traditional assistance programs. in this regard, efforts to strengthen the global financial safety net ( gfsn ), with broader tools that require international cooperation, should be at the forefront of policymakers ’ agenda. this is essential to enhance the resilience of the global financial system. at a national level, building financial markets and domestic residents ’ resilience as well as having sufficient buffers and self - insurance instruments ( international reserves ) are fundamental to better absorb all kinds of economic and financial shocks. these instruments can be more optimally designed and complemented by multilateral, regional and bilateral arrangements, such as currency swap lines and repo facilities, which played a critical role in breaking the risk aversion spiral in global financial markets and dollar - funding conditions. finally, let me highlight other areas of opportunity for multilateral institutions and ifis. in the presence of global systemic shocks that need to mobilize capital rapidly, affordably and with low risk, new approaches need to be analyzed. ifis could design loan - guarantee programs to create deep, liquid, and well - diversified portfolios or even exchange traded funds ( etfs ) to attract investors and minimize expected losses. this would allow countries to access emergency and targeted financing through international capital markets, and could also be designed to use