##eleration in u. s. shelter prices. a surge in completions of multifamily housing has contributed to the sharp slowing of rent increases on new leases this year. that slowing will feed over time into a continued decline of inflation in rents and owners'equivalent rents ( the rents that homeowners forgo by living in their own homes rather than renting them out ), thus contributing importantly to the expected further reduction in overall u. s. inflation. in the u. s., labor supply, which fell because of the effects of the pandemic, has recovered significantly over the past two years, boosted by rebounds in labor force participation and immigration. the labor force participation rate, at 62. 7 percent in october, has increased by 0. 5 percentage point over the past 12 months, while participation of prime - age workers ( those 25 to 54 years of age ) has increased nearly twice as much. as a result, the prime - age participation rate is now above its prepandemic level and is near its highest point since 2002. the rise has been especially strong for prime - age women, whose participation recently reached a record - high level. over this year, payroll growth has slowed but remained strong. and a broad set of indicators show labor demand and labor supply coming into better balance. currently, there are 1. 5 job openings per unemployed worker. while still a high level historically, it is down from its peak of 2. 0 early last year and is much closer to the pre - pandemic ratio of 1. 2. quits, which soared during the pandemic, have fallen since early 2022 and were 2 / 6 bis - central bankers'speeches close to their 2019 average in july, an indication that workers are less certain of finding another job in a cooling labor market. the workweek, which rose to very high levels during the pandemic when firms could not find enough workers, has returned to prepandemic levels. and surveys of employers suggest that hiring and retention are not as difficult as they were last year. to be sure, it is a good thing that the easing in supply – demand imbalances in the labor market and the disinflation we are seeing thus far have taken place with only a modest increase in the unemployment rate, which was 3. 9 percent in october. as i have discussed, that favorable combination likely reflected an easing of supply constraints, including in the labor market. i am also

financial commitments, particularly for activities that revitalize and stabilize targeted areas. our analysis suggests a community development finance metric along the lines outlined here will help to ensure greater predictability and consistency in achieving a satisfactory rating. however, we also want to make sure that these metrics are supplemented with clear, qualitative standards to ensure that small - scale, high - impact community development activities are rewarded, along with a bank ’ s responsiveness to local needs and priorities. community development test — evaluating services it is also important to evaluate services qualitatively at the assessment - area level as part of the overall community development test. volunteer and other services provided by banks can provide meaningful support to communities whose value is unlikely to be adequately captured on a comparable basis using aggregative dollar value metrics. in areas with a low density of financial services, a bank officer on the board of local community organizations could provide considerable value to the community that is not accurately reflected by monetizing volunteer hours based on their compensation. tailoring this approach to assessing cra performance would tailor performance metrics to bank size and business strategy, as well as to local and cyclical conditions. the approach would tailor to banks ’ business models by establishing separate thresholds for substantially different lending products, such as mortgage loans and small business, small farm, and consumer loans, as well as separate retail lending and community development financing metrics. - 13 - the proposed metrics would also be tailored for different bank sizes. this is facilitated in part by allowing very small banks to retain the current evaluation procedures and in part by creating a separate community development test that would apply only to large banks. tailoring is also an important consideration in data collection and reporting requirements. the proposed retail lending approach is designed so that it can be implemented in significant part with data that are readily available. in designing the community development approach, we have been mindful of burden as we consider any additional data that might be required to implement certain metrics. finally, as previously noted, the metrics are tailored for local conditions and cyclical considerations. the proposed threshold for each type of activity is calibrated to local conditions as they evolve over the cycle, and the community development finance metric uses an additional time - varying national rural or urban comparator. the path ahead staff across the federal reserve system have devoted substantial time and effort to engaging with the other banking agencies in the cra reform process. the analysis, data, and proposals i have discussed today