Assistant Secretary of Labor DeRocco Leads Harrisburg Roundtable Discussion on Strength of U.S. Economy
Regional Economic and Educational Efforts in Geospatial Technology Featured
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training Emily Stover DeRocco visited Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC) today to discuss the role of regional economic development strategies in meeting President Bush’s priorities to encourage the creation of good jobs, especially in high growth and emerging industries such as geospatial technologies. The visit followed the release of December’s employment report.
“Today’s numbers cap a year of steady growth and good news for America’s workers,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao in a statement today. “Two million net new jobs created in 2005, more Americans working than ever before—142.8 million, and an average annual unemployment rate of 5.1%-- one of the lowest annual average unemployment rates in the past 35 years. We need to stay the course with the President’s economic initiatives.”
The country’s economy has seen 31 consecutive months of job growth, and maintains a steady and low unemployment rate of 4.9%. Chao highlighted the need to implement the President’s pro-growth economic policies to continue to strengthen the nation’s economy. These include making the tax cuts permanent, so workers can keep more of their hard-earned wages, and continuing to invest in worker training and reforming publicly funded training programs.
DeRocco was joined in Harrisburg by area employers, educators and students in a forum that highlighted geospatial employment and education trends, including HACC’s launch this month of Pennsylvania’s first associate’s degree program in geospatial technology.
“The President continues to stress the need to keep Americans competitive for the 21st century global marketplace,” said DeRocco. “Harrisburg Area Community College’s new geospatial degree program is one of a number of area examples focused on talent development, which is central to effective regional economic development strategies.”
Under the President’s High Growth Job Training Initiative, the Department of Labor has awarded a $990,000 grant for geospatial analysis technicians at the William Goodling Advanced Skills Center in York. The Harrisburg Area Community College and Harrisburg University are among the project’s partners.
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