roger w ferguson, jr : economic progress and small business speech by mr roger w ferguson, jr, vice - chairman of the board of governors of the federal reserve system, before the african american chamber of commerce of western pennsylvania, pittsburgh, pennsylvania, 12 november 2002. * * * i am pleased to join you today. i would like to focus first on the economic status of minority americans, including some information from the federal reserve's most recent survey of consumer finances. i will then turn to the role of small businesses in our economy, drawing on our research on small business finances and our efforts to promote small business access to capital and credit. labor market developments during the 1990s, we were fortunate to have experienced the longest uninterrupted economic expansion in u. s. history. by late 2000, the unemployment rate was the lowest it had been in more than thirty years. the expansion benefited all segments of the population, including minority groups. in fact, the unemployment rate for blacks dropped to less than 7 - 1 / 2 percent in late 2000 ; it had not been lower than 9 percent since statistics on the minority labor force were first collected in 1972. but despite the improvement, blacks still lagged, with an unemployment rate that was nearly twice the national average. over the past year and a half, as all of you know, we have experienced a business cycle downturn that has been followed, more recently, by a very slow recovery in the labor market. as a result, we have retraced some of the gains recorded during the 1990s. the overall unemployment rate has moved back up to 5 - 3 / 4 percent in recent months, and the jobless rate for blacks has hovered just below 10 percent. the fact that the business cycle has had broad effects on the labor market outcomes - - both on the upside and on the downside - - highlights the limited scope for monetary policy to be calibrated to target or to exempt a particular segment of our economy from cyclical changes in economic activity. over the course of the business cycle, in both good times and bad, minority unemployment rates tend to run significantly higher than the national average. economists have determined that a variety of factors contribute to that persistent disparity, including educational levels, work experience, and proximity to available jobs. nonetheless, the particularly troubling longer - run trend of declining labor force activity of black men remains subject to considerable debate. monetary policy alone cannot address the underlying structural causes of differences in economic

##goolam. after the third year, all three coins will be issued in a collector ’ s set. 49. human resources and capacity building during the course of the year, 15 staff members retired from the bank under the voluntary retirement scheme. we recruited two analysts while two left the bank on 31 december 2010. over the last three years, the size of the bank ’ s workforce has declined from 261 in december 2008 to 241 in december 2010, and we are endeavouring to change the skills set and knowledge base of our staff to reflect the changing nature of the central bank ’ s functions. the challenges facing the central bank are becoming more daunting. our staff benefited from a wide range of training courses in their respective areas of work, underscoring our ever - increasing need to keep abreast with the latest developments in the banking and finance world. the issues that central banks the world over have to deal with have drastically changed and we need to have very diverse and specialized skills within the bank to meet the challenges. in the course of the coming year i intend to supplement our training calendar with an executive training program on leadership, team - building and management skills. 50. corporate social responsibility i launched the bank of mauritius national inter club youth championship in 2007 in the context of the bank ’ s 40th anniversary celebrations. today the championship has become a regular fixture in the bank ’ s calendar of activities and constitutes an essential part of our corporate social responsibility to the nation. our objective in organising this event is to give the opportunity to our youth, in mauritius and rodrigues, to show their talents in sports. we are proud to note that this event has been a very fertile ground for the establishment of national records. it is equally rewarding that 12 athletes, who first came to national attention at the bank - sponsored championship, have been selected to represent the country in the “ jeux des iles 2011 ” in seychelles. 51. overall assessment of the year 2010 in the preceding paragraphs, i have endeavoured to give you some of the highlights of the year that has just gone by. against the backdrop of the continuing global crisis, complicated by a governance crisis at the bank, the job of the central bank governor has proved to be still more challenging than usual. the year started on a very uncertain note but ended on a quite different tone. it began with dark mutterings and a back - handed compliment from a local newspaper crowning the governor “ l ’ homme ( controverse )