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Remarks Delivered by
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao
Paducah Chamber of Commerce
Washington, D.C.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Thank you, Mayor Paxton [Paducah Mayor William Paxton].
Good afternoon, and welcome to Washington. It is great to see so many friends from home! Paducah is a place of both beauty and opportunity, a gateway to the Mississippi River and a top-ten "micropolitan" growth area. So let me begin today by giving a snapshot of our country's economic progress and how our country can remain competitive in today's worldwide economy. And then I'd like to briefly touch upon another issue of great concern to our country.
Our economy is strong. But our nation is increasingly part of a worldwide economy and to remain strong, we must remain competitive. We've see 36 straight months of job creation. Over 5.7 million net new jobs have been created in the last three years. The unemployment rate is 4.7 percent, which is a full percentage point lower than the unemployment rate in the 1990s.
In Kentucky, August's employment figures reflect a strong rebound from a seasonal dip in July. Kentucky employers added 21,600 jobs to payrolls over the past 12 months, keeping close pace with the national rate of job growth. Private education and health services led the way by adding 5,700 jobs, while leisure and hospitality services contributed 4,900 jobs. Other growing industries included professional and business services, trade, transportation, and government.
We can compare growth in our country with Europe, where job growth has been half that of the United States and where two countries — France and Germany — have unemployment rates nearly double that of ours. And, where gasoline prices are more than $6 per gallon!
As our economy grows, incomes are steadily rising, as well. Despite what you may have heard, average hourly earnings increased 3.9 percent over the past year. But, as you know so well, workers' gains aren't limited to their salaries and wages.
We also need to talk about overall compensation, which includes healthcare benefits, retirement benefits, paid leave, tuition assistance, and more. Overall compensation has increased about 6 percent since 2000. And real, after-tax per capita disposable income has risen 8.9 percent since 2001.
Although our Commonwealth has a higher than national average unemployment rate, there are many reasons to be optimistic about the future. State projections anticipate that Kentucky's employment growth by 2012 will outstrip the national average. To cite a few examples, the Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipates that by 2012, the number of computer systems administrators in Kentucky will grow by 39 percent, the number of elementary school teachers will grow by 23 percent, and the number of carpenters will grow by 22 percent. These are all important jobs for our economy.
President George W. Bush believes that the private sector creates jobs, not the government. And that the federal government can help by creating the climate for growth. That is why the President's tax cuts need to be made permanent.
The federal government also invests over $14 billion each year through the public workforce investment system to prepare workers for good jobs. There is a nationwide system of One-Stop Career Centers — there is one in Paducah, at 416 South Sixth Street — to help connect workers with employers and to help workers access education and training opportunities.
As part of this Administration's commitment to job training, the Department of Labor has awarded more than $260 million to support over 130 job training projects nationwide. Over $11 million has gone to Kentucky organizations to help train and retrain workers. This includes a $2.48 million grant to the Kentucky Community and Technical College System for state-of-the-art training in automotive manufacturing. And it also includes a $3 million grant to support training of coal miners, in partnership with industry, the community college and technical college system, and the Pennyrile Area Development District, just to the east of Paducah.
What is happening in Paducah reflects wider trends in our country. Our country is transitioning to a knowledge-based economy. This transition has created millions of new jobs in industries that did not even exist a generation ago.
Nearly two-thirds of the estimated 18 million new jobs created over the next decade will be in occupations that require some kind of higher education. Now this doesn't necessarily mean a four-year degree from the University of Louisville. It can be a two-year degree from a community college, such as West Kentucky Community College. Or the education can be specialized training, including apprentice programs in highly marketable skilled trades.
Completing some form of post-secondary education is critical because a skills gap is emerging in our country. That is the mismatch between the new, high-value jobs being created and the skills of our workforce.
The President addressed this issue directly when he announced the American Competitiveness Initiative in his 2005 State of the Union Address.
The new Initiative pledges $136 billion in additional national resources over the next decade to:
- Strengthen U.S. education in math and the sciences;
- Invest in worker skills and education;
- Encourage entrepreneurship and innovation; and
- Boost research and development.
A key part of this initiative is the President's proposal for Career Advancement Accounts. These accounts will empower workers by providing them with resources to purchase the education and training that suits them best at community colleges or technical institutes.
Whether it is through apprenticeship programs, employer-provided training, universities or some other education provider, we must empower working Americans with the resources to further their education and maintain their own competitiveness.
Let me also touch upon another issue of great concern to our Commonwealth, and that is the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act — which is known as EEOICPA. We have been working very hard at the Department of Labor to ensure that this program is working as effectively as possible to get compensation and medical benefits out to eligible workers and their survivors.
It has been a real challenge, because just last year, the Department inherited a backlog of nearly 20,000 cases from the Department of Energy. To date, however, the Department of Labor has awarded a total of more than $323 million to more than 3,000 workers of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant or their survivors, and more than $2 billion nationwide.
Before I close, let me mention briefly another key issue for our country and our Commonwealth. Last week, our country paused to reflect upon the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001. We remembered the innocent victims who perished on that day, their family, friends and loved ones and the survivors. And we remembered in our hearts and prayers our men and women in uniform, who are fighting to defend our freedom.
These events help to remind us that the War on Terror is more than a military conflict. Our country faces an enemy determined to bring death and suffering into our homes. It is imperative that our country confronts these threats before they reach our shores — whether the threats come from terrorist networks or terrorist states.
As the President pointed out last week, our enemies have not succeeded in launching another attack on our soil, but they have not been idle. But Al Qaeda and those inspired by its hateful ideology have carried out terrorist attacks in more than two dozen nations. And just last month, they were foiled in a plot to blow up passenger planes headed for the United States. So it is critical that our country continue to defend forward, to take the battle to the terrorists, so we don't have to fight them here at home.
Many of those who have been deployed in Iraq and elsewhere in the War of Terror are based in, or have traveled through, Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
So to support our returning troops, the Department of Labor maintains a significant commitment to the Fort Campbell area. We provide over 100 Transition Assistance Program Employment and Training Workshops at Fort Campbell each year. The Department also maintains a special program, called RealLifeLines, to provide person-to-person employment assistance to severely wounded service members. They have been there for us. Now it's our turn to be there for them. They make possible the freedoms we all enjoy every day.
So now, let me thank you for inviting me to speak. And now, I will be happy to take your questions.
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