In particular, a clear tightening trend of supply and demand conditions in the labor market has been observed, as evidenced, for example, by the fact that the active job openings-to-applicants ratio for June 2014 was at a high level, as I  2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  mentioned earlier, and that the unemployment rate – which has been hovering at a low level of around 3¾ percent recently – registered 3.7 percent the same month.
On the other hand, the potential growth rate of the economy remains at a low level, and therefore supply-side constraints are likely to eventually surface if the economy continues to grow at the current pace. This suggests that, although such constraints will contribute to pushing up wages and prices temporarily, the real economic growth rate might not rise easily. B.