Nevertheless, the unemployment rate in New York and New Jersey has risen to levels not seen in almost two decades. In New York City, employment has typically recovered more than a year later than the recovery of national employment and has, in the past, been led by a recovery of Wall Street employment. Although Upstate New York has seen little overall job growth for the past several decades, job losses in this downturn were not as severe as losses for the nation, in part, because the upstate metro areas did not experience a boom-and-bust housing cycle. In addition, Puerto Rico, which is also part of our District, has experienced a considerably longer and deeper downturn than the mainland or this region. Before I continue, it is important to explain the integral role of the Federal Reserve System in regional economies across the country. One of our key responsibilities here at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is to connect the Federal Reserve System to Main Street across our District. Real activity takes place on Main Street in the form of the millions of decisions made every day by households and businesses around the country. When we talk to them, we learn how firms and consumers are experiencing the economy. That essential insight from Main Street informs the policy decisions that we make in pursuit of our goals of stable prices, full employment and financial stability.
We recognize that timely and accurate information about our region, which is highly valuable to us, can also help to reduce uncertainty and inform the economic and financial decisions of regional residents, businesses, communities and governments. To that end, we make our various regional measures and analysis available to the public through our website and a variety of outreach activities. These activities include making presentations on topics of current concern to business and community organizations throughout the District. We welcome you here today to brief you on our views of the current state of activity and employment in the regional economy and to review the rich portfolio of resources that we make available to help monitor economic conditions across the region. 2  BIS Review 49/2010