am optimistic that part of the step - up in productivity growth will be sustained and that it will be reinforced by the renewed upturn in capital spending. continued solid gains in productivity will be an important plus for our economy over the longer run because faster increases in productivity lead over time to higher profits, wages, and standards of living. the jobless recovery also led economists to debate the extent to which the lack of hiring overall and the continued decline in manufacturing jobs specifically represented structural changes, that is, changes that were not likely to be reversed as the recovery strengthened. specifically, a great deal of attention focused on the loss of international competitiveness, foreign outsourcing, and the relocation of jobs to overseas subsidiaries. although these changes are, indeed, a natural consequence of globalization, we have considerable evidence that they are only a small part of the larger story. the ongoing turnover in jobs in our dynamic economy is considerable. the estimates that our staff assembled for a speech earlier this year at duke university by my federal reserve board colleague ben bernanke indicated that, over the past decade, gross private - sector job losses in the u. s. economy have likely amounted to 15 million per year, not including seasonal and short - term layoffs. 1 estimates of jobs lost to imports account for only slightly more than 2 percent of the total. more important, of course, is that the job creation side of the churning process has been even larger roughly 17 million jobs per year. given the total number of private - sector jobs of 108 million, an average year of job gains and losses represents about 30 percent of the total. certainly, the charlotte region is very familiar with this dynamic process of job creation and destruction. in 1990, the charlotte - gastonia - rock hill metropolitan area was relatively dependent on the fortunes of its manufacturing sector. the area had almost 150, 000 manufacturing jobs, which represented almost one - fourth of the area ’ s employment ; by contrast, jobs in professional and business services accounted for just 10 percent of the area ’ s employment, or roughly 60, 000 jobs. ten years later, the picture was dramatically different : largely because of cutbacks at textile mills, the charlotte metropolitan area had lost almost 20, 000 factory jobs. but, at the same time, employment in professional and business services had more than doubled to roughly equal the number of manufacturing jobs that existed here in 2000. employment in education, health, and leisure had also expanded rapidly. certainly, the broader distribution of employment in

for release on delivery 7 : 00 p. m. est november 25, 2019 building on the gains from the long expansion remarks by jerome h. powell chair board of governors of the federal reserve system at annual meeting of the greater providence chamber of commerce providence, rhode island november 25, 2019 over the past year, my colleagues and i on the federal open market committee ( fomc ) have been conducting a first - ever public review of how we make monetary policy. as part of that review, we held fed listens events around the country where representatives from a wide range of groups have been telling us how the economy is working for them and the people they represent and how the federal reserve might better promote the goals congress has set for us : maximum employment and price stability. we have heard two messages loud and clear. first, as this expansion continues into its 11th year — the longest in u. s. history — economic conditions are generally good. second, the benefits of the long expansion are only now reaching many communities, and there is plenty of room to build on the impressive gains achieved so far. these themes show through in many ways in official statistics. for example, more than a decade of steady advances has pushed the jobless rate near a 50 - year low, where it has remained for well over a year. but the wealth of middle - income families — savings, home equity, and other assets — has only recently surpassed levels seen before the great recession, and the wealth of people with lower incomes, while growing, has yet to fully recover. 1 fortunately, the outlook for further progress is good : forecasters are generally predicting continued growth, a strong job market, and inflation near 2 percent. tonight i will begin by discussing the fed ’ s policy actions over the past year to support the favorable outlook. then i will turn to two important opportunities for further gains from these wealth calculations are from the federal reserve ’ s distributional financial accounts ( dfas ). for more details on the dfas, see michael batty, joseph briggs, karen pence, paul smith, and alice volz ( 2019 ), “ the distributional financial accounts, ” feds notes ( washington : board of governors of the federal reserve system, august 30 ), https : / / www. federalreserve. gov / econres / notes / feds - notes / thedistributional - financial - accounts - 20190830. htm. to view or download