Just two weeks ago I visited Rochester and Buffalo. One thing I tend to focus on in my meetings, more generally, is what hurdles businesses and households are facing that might be holding back growth. When we identify issues of concern, we factor those in to our decision-making and explore what we can do proactively to address these issues. This might include providing data and information that can assist others in tackling the underlying problems, or in convening stakeholders to discuss potential solutions and the best way forward. Recently, two themes have emerged from our community visits that warrant special attention. The first is in the arena of workforce development. Employers often have difficulty finding potential employees with the specific skills they need, and workers often lack the specific skills employers are looking for. Workforce development aims to bridge this gap. Good jobs increasingly require higher levels of skill and education, and a skilled workforce that is  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  matched to the needs of employers is also necessary for an economy to grow and prosper. That is why I believe workforce development is so important for the long-term health of the economy. Our outreach group regularly engages with community leaders to help them take action to address workforce development needs and skill gaps. In fact, in Rochester, our team is partnering with several educational and community organizations to promote local workforce development programs.
For example, Etsy, the popular e-commerce website, which in many ways resembles a retail company, relies on technology to underpin its business model. But it’s not just New York City that is growing nicely. Employment levels on Long Island and in parts of upstate New York—most notably the Albany, Buffalo and Rochester metro areas—have also climbed and are at or near record highs. During my recent trip to upstate New York, I saw first-hand some of the positive developments in Rochester and Buffalo. After undergoing a prolonged period of economic transformation and reinvention, Rochester’s economy is now more diverse and dynamic than ever before. Meanwhile, the growth in Buffalo was striking. The numbers show a dramatic uptick in construction 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  employment, and the visual evidence of development was widespread. I was especially impressed with the downtown and waterfront areas, as well as the new SolarCity factory—all of which looked dramatically different than when I visited the area less than two years ago. Both of these places are well positioned for future success. On the other hand, the employment recovery has been slow to take hold in both Northern New Jersey and the Lower Hudson Valley, where jobs are still not back to their pre-recession peak despite employment growing steadily. For Northern New Jersey, this lag is due, in part, to a stall in the growth of jobs in professional and business services. But the education and health sectors continue to add jobs, and construction employment is seeing a rebound.