(Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams called attention to bias in the U.S. economy in remarks for the OPEN Finance Forum Tuesday, saying it's a “source of constant disappointment and frustration that LGBT people, women, people of color, continue to have less economic opportunity than their straight white male counterparts.”
As an example, he highlighted the unemployment rate for lesbian, gay and transgender people -- almost double the national average -- and said the disparity is holding back economic growth.
“Creating equality of opportunity at the national level is a challenge that the the United States continues to struggle with,” he said. “But it's both the right thing to do and the only way we'll reach our full economic potential.”
The Fed is taking steps to make its own workplace and policies more inclusive, Williams said. The New York Fed has created the option to add gender pronouns to the official email signatures, and flew the LGBT rainbow pride flag outside the New York office for the first time this month, he said.
See Story: Half of LGBT Workers Stay Closeted, Unmoved by Diversity Efforts
Unemployment for transgender workers is three times the national average and nearly half of LGBT workers remain closeted at work, which is a clear indication of the amount of work left to do for inclusion, Williams said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jeff Green in Southfield, Michigan at jgreen16@bloomberg.net;Matthew Boesler in New York at mboesler1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Janet Paskin at jpaskin@bloomberg.net
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