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ETA News Release: [04/06/2004]
Contact Name: Ed
Frank
Phone Number: (202) 693-4676
Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao Announces Skilled
Trades Initiative
Labor Department, Industry and Union Leaders to
Address Worker Shortages by Promoting Skilled Trades Careers
WASHINGTON—With a
shortage of workers expected over the next ten years in many of the skilled
trades, U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao today joined a diverse group of
partners from industry and organized labor to announce the “Skills to Build America’s
Future” initiative. Skills to Build America’s Future is a
nationwide outreach and education effort designed to attract young people and
transitioning workers to careers in the skilled trades and to address the
growing need for workers in America’s construction industry.
“Today we need the skills and talents of a new generation of
skilled tradesmen and women,” said Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao.
“Over the next few years many jobs will be created in the skilled trades,
and even more opportunities will open up as the Baby Boom generation retires.
The skilled trades offer more than great jobs- they also play a key role in
building America’s future.”
Partners in the initiative include the Construction Industry Round
Table, the National Heavy and Highway Alliance and its affiliated international
unions, and the National Association of Home Builders.
Many of the skilled trades are currently facing a shortage of workers
and the number of people needed to fill these jobs is expected to increase
dramatically over the next several years. Construction laborers, operating
engineers, carpenters, iron workers, cement masons, bricklayers, truck drivers
and many other construction related crafts are among the trades expected to see
the greatest demand in workers over the next 6 years.
“The best way to ensure a pipeline of workers entering the skilled
trades is to build awareness among young people and workers transitioning to
new careers of the quality and quantity of industry opportunities,” said
Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training Emily Stover DeRocco.
“This new generation of skilled trades workers will build the structural
and economic foundation of America for the 21st Century and
beyond.”
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