the emergence of new occupations and, at the same time, the decline or replacement of some jobs. together with this, the costs of job search are falling, speeding up the process of matching demand and supply. thus, impacts on productivity might be observed via the exchange of knowledge and the development of more efficient processes. in the financial area, digitization is redesigning the traditional payment systems, while drawing attention to concepts such as crypto - currencies and digital money. disruptive technologies and the creation of these assets have potential benefits, the most important being those related to financial inclusion, reduced informality and tax evasion, and the promotion of safer and more efficient electronic payments. however, risks, concerns, and costs also arise. in particular, there is the need to develop technical capacity and adapt informationtechnology resources towards cybersecurity. with regard to anonymity, this can generate problems as it discourages users from working with information under these constraints. finally, if digital currencies are not page 1 of 4 central bank of chile october 2019 universally accepted and financially exclude the population less integrated into the new technologies, reputational risks may also emerge. when we talk about the digital economy, we are referring to a wide range of economic activities, and the huge volumes of data they generate. now there are many new, more timely and granular sources of information, but largely unstructured for statistical purposes. this imposes statistical agencies a new role in data management, which involves the application of efficient and secure practices for data storage, handling and dissemination. as the exploitation of administrative records and alternative sources that qualify as big data consolidates, it presents an opportunity to complement the indicators currently available. similarly, we need professionals with the necessary skills to exploit these great volumes of information, along with a technological infrastructure that allows the efficient storage and processing of such volumes. from a global standpoint, digitization has modified the perception of distance, reducing the costs of crosscountry coordination. this process has accelerated the fragmentation of production across borders, requiring additional efforts to adequately measure the value that each country contributes to the production chain of goods and services. this process of productive integration is known as global value chains ( gvc ). in this context, the scope of idiosyncratic shocks has global repercussions, affecting the different economies involved in the gvc. as we noted in our latest monetary policy report, the escalation of the trade war between the us

growth not only in the fourth quarter of 2021 but also in the first half of 2022. in terms of the job market, households and businesses perceive that conditions are as tight as or tighter than they were pre - covid, even though the unemployment rate is more than a percentage point higher. there are certainly ample data showing labor demand is very strong. job openings remain at a record level. new businesses are starting up at a much higher pace than they did from 2017 to 2019. people are quitting jobs, either to take new ones or because they are confident that they can find new ones, likewise at a record rate. the improvement i expect in managing covid should drive demand higher but also provide a boost to labor supply as those who have been on the sidelines return to a job market that keeps improving. with respect to employment data, revisions to the august and september job numbers indicated that the summer slowdown in job gains wasn ’ t nearly as bad as initial reports suggested. job creation averaged 442, 000 a month from august to october, down from the 641, 000 average for the other seven months of 2021. nevertheless, this is a healthy pace for job creation and will speed the recovery of the labor market if it continues. adjusting for early retirements, we are only 2 million jobs short of where we were in february 2020. regarding the unemployment rate, in october the rate stood at 4. 6 percent. compared with one year ago, that rate has fallen 2. 3 percentage points. if the decline continues at about that pace in coming months, the unemployment rate could be below 4 percent before too long. in light of these data, in my view, the labor market is rapidly approaching maximum employment. but i will be watching for factors, 1 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches from continued supply bottlenecks and a winter surge of covid cases, that could slow this progress. turning to inflation, inflation has escalated substantially this year, along with a significant rise in inflation expectations. the october consumer price index report showed an unexpected surge in inflation. the monthly print corresponds to an annualized rate exceeding 10 percent, while the year - over - year increase was 6. 2 percent — the highest since december 1990. despite the highest wage gains in years, inflation this year has wiped out any real wage increase for the average worker. high inflation is painful to americans who have little choice about the goods and services they buy for everyday living. prices are up significantly at the