Speeches by Secretary Elaine L. Chao

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Remarks Prepared for Delivery by
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao
CelebrASIAN 2006: Partnering for Growth
Chicago, Illinois
Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Thank you, Ellee [Pai Hong, Emcee; Morning News Anchor, NBC5, Chicago].

I want to thank Susan and the U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce for inviting me to join you today.

This afternoon, I'd like to update you on the strength of our nation's economy. And then share with you what this Administration and the Department of Labor are doing to help Asian Pacific Americans access opportunities in mainstream America.

Let me start by giving you a snapshot of our country's economic progress, which is good news for entrepreneurs in our community. The GDP growth rate for the first quarter of 2006 is 4.8 percent, which is remarkable for a mature, industrialized economy like our own. America has experienced 32 months of uninterrupted growth, creating approximately 5.3 million net new jobs since August 2003. That's more jobs created than Europe and Japan combined. And the national unemployment rate, which the Labor Department announced on the first Friday in May, remains low at 4.7 percent. This is well below the 5.7 percent average unemployment rate of the decade of the 1990s.

Small and medium-sized businesses, like your own, are creating many of these new jobs. Over the past two-and-a-half years, small and medium-sized businesses accounted for two-thirds of total net job gains in the U.S. That's a tremendous contribution to our nation's economic strength.

And that's why helping you succeed is one of President George W. Bush's priorities! One of the President's first reforms was an Executive Order mandating competition in government services and contracts. He specifically asked that, when appropriate, large contracts be separated into smaller ones so that small businesses could access these opportunities.

In 2004, the Federal government awarded more than $18.5 billion — yes, that's billions — in contracts to small and minority owned businesses. The U.S. Department of Labor alone awarded approximately $203.7 million in contracts to small and minority owned businesses. [2005 numbers are not yet final.] So these are great opportunities, and I know that this conference is helping you learn how to access them.

President Bush shares the values of our community and has shown this in many ways. The President has appointed more than 300 Asian Pacific Americans to the highest levels of government. This includes for the first time ever the appointments of two Asian Pacific Americans to the President's Cabinet. And I'm especially proud that the U.S. Department of Labor has the highest number of Asian Pacific American appointees in the federal government. So, the voices of our community are increasingly being heard at the very highest levels of government.

Now, let me share with you some of the programs the Labor Department has developed to help Asian Pacific Americans advance within mainstream America.

This includes a tremendous amount of outreach and publishing customized materials that our community can access. For example, the Department has developed and translated special worker safety materials in several Asian languages including Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean. This helps employers and workers better understand their rights and responsibilities under U.S. labor laws.

To help employers navigate the large number of complex labor laws, the Department has developed several Compliance Assistance tools. These include:

• The FirstStep Employment Law Advisor, which is an online, interactive tool that will walk you through a series of steps to help you determine which laws apply to your business.
• Second, the Department's Employment Law Guide which gives employers easy-to-understand information about wage, benefit, safety and health, and nondiscrimination policies for their businesses.
• And third, the Department also has a toll-free telephone helpline — 1-866-4-USA-DOL — which is a central access point for information on a range of employment rules and issues. Information is available in more than 150 languages, including Chinese.

You can find the Law Advisor and Law Guide on the Department of Labor's Web site at www.dol.gov.

In 2002, for the first time, the monthly unemployment data put out by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Department of Labor began to include Asian Pacific Americans. This helps us analyze obstacles to employment and design ways to reduce these barriers.

And the Department has launched many other initiatives that can help you advance within mainstream America.

Let me give you a heads up on the upcoming 4th Annual Opportunity Conference hosted by the Department of Labor. This year's conference will be on October 17 in Philadelphia. This is a conference to help traditionally underserved communities access opportunity in mainstream America. It offers free workshops on networking, communications and accessing government grant and contracting opportunities. I hope you will check out this conference on www.opportunityconference.gov, or www.dol.gov, and consider attending. This is another great opportunity to learn about how to access procurement opportunities with the federal government.

The Labor Department also sponsors and hosts an annual APA Federal Career Advancement Summit to help Asian Pacific Americans advance within the federal government. In fact, just two weeks ago, the Department hosted the 5th annual Federal Career Summit. More than 1,000 Asian Pacific Americans participated in the summit.

This summit is especially timely because 60 percent of the federal workforce will be eligible for retirement in the next 10 years. So, this presents an unprecedented opportunity to increase the diversity of the federal workforce. You can find out more information about these and other opportunities by going to our Web site at www.usajobs.gov.

Another initiative at the Labor Department is the Secretary's Internship Program which is aimed to help develop the next generation of leaders. If you know young people who are interested, please visit our Web site at www.dol.gov for information on the internship programs.

These are only a few examples of the many ways in which the President, this Administration and the Department of Labor are helping Asian Pacific Americans access opportunity in mainstream America.

Let me close by mentioning one more issue that is important to our community and all Americans and that is immigration. On Monday, the President spoke to our country about his proposals for a comprehensive plan on immigration. In his remarks, the President emphasized the importance of securing the border. This would include sending 6,000 members of the National Guard to our southern border. He also proposed a guest worker program that would help match willing workers with willing employers.

Another important aspect of the President's proposed plan is increasing the number of permanent immigrants (green cards) and raising the caps on the H-1B program.

These routes are the primary way Asian immigrants gain access to the U.S. and reunify their families. So these changes should speed the process for immigrants who are already in line to get green cards.

As we move forward in this process, the President and this Administration will work to preserve these important changes that mean so much to our community.

Finally, let me congratulate all of today's award winners and scholarship winners.

As you know, I have never forgotten my roots. The Asian Pacific American community is close to my heart. And helping you access opportunity in mainstream America is one of my highest priorities.

So, thank you for inviting me to join you today. And thank you for all you're doing to strengthen our community and our country.