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Remarks Prepared for Delivery by
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao
"Workforce Competitiveness in a Global Economy"
Chamber of Commerce Uruguay-USA
Uruguay
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Thank you for that warm welcome.
It's wonderful to be back in Montevideo. The last time I was here was on March 1, 2005, to represent my President and the United States at the Inauguration of then newly-elected President Vazquez.
Before arriving in Uruguay this time, I was in Argentina leading the U.S. Presidential Delegation to the Inauguration of President Christina Fernández de Kirchner.
South America is an important region for the United States. As neighbors, the United States welcomes the opportunity to visit more frequently, exchange views, and share solutions to common challenges.
In the last two months, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson have also visited Uruguay.
President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush greatly enjoyed their visit here in March. And I know President Bush and President Vazquez enjoy a warm and cordial relationship.
I am looking forward to my time in Uruguay. This morning, let me share with you some of the principles that are fundamental to the long-term stability of the U.S. economy and its ability to create good jobs. And I'd also like to share our country's approach to help our workforce remain competitive in the worldwide economy.
The best way the U.S. government helps workers is by creating the climate for growth and job creation. The United States believes that it is the private sector that creates jobs, and that the role of the government is to create the climate for growth. And, creating the right climate is critical to ensuring the U.S. remains competitive in the worldwide economy. For us, that means reducing the over-regulation, excessive taxation, and costly legal battles that hamper growth. The U.S. economy is based on a free market system that favors low taxes, flexible labor markets, and openness to trade. The President's plan for economic growth includes four key points:
- Making health care more affordable;
- Reducing the lawsuit burden;
- Streamlining regulations and reporting requirements, especially for small and medium-sized businesses; and
- Enabling families and businesses to plan for the future with confidence by lowering taxes across the board for everyone.
And, this plan has produced steady economic growth. In fact, the U.S. economy has grown every year since 1982, with the exception of a relatively mild 0.2 percent decline in 1991.
Part of creating a climate for growth and job creation is removing as many barriers to growth as possible. And, this is particularly important in the U.S. because so much of our economic growth and job creation comes from small and medium-sized businesses that have limited resources. In fact, two-thirds of the new jobs created in this country in the last decade and a half have been created by small and medium businesses. And so, this Administration has taken steps, for example, to simplify licensing requirements so that it's easier for small businesses to get started. Also, in the U.S., most small businesses pay taxes at the individual income tax rate. And, this has increased the amount of capital available to small businesses to invest in technology and expand and hire new workers.
Today, the U.S. economy is continuing to create jobs, despite the many challenges we face. Our country has now seen 51 straight months of job growth. Our economy has created more than 8.3 million new jobs since August 2003 — more than the eurozone nations and Japan combined. And, this year, our country saw 3rd quarter GDP growth of 4.9 percent. No one can predict what the future will hold. But, history shows that, even when America's economy is hit with challenges, the fundamental strengths of our system enable our country to rebound on the long-term path of expansion and prosperity.
Like all nations, the U.S. economy does face challenges. America's workforce is the backbone of America's economy. And, the competition for skilled workers is now global. Like Uruguay, the United States is trying to address this challenge. Our country is facing a skills gap as it continues to transition to a knowledge-based economy. That's the mismatch between the skills of some in our workforce and the skills needed for jobs in growing sectors of the economy. In the next decade, nearly two-thirds of the estimated 15.6 million new jobs will be in occupations that require some post-secondary education. And, growth will be fastest among jobs that require at least some post-secondary education. These jobs require more creativity and critical thinking. And so workers with more knowledge, skills, and creativity are in greater demand and are earning higher wages.
Between 2006 and 2016, for example, our country will need 2.8 million healthcare professionals, and over 950,000 engineers, including aerospace, biomedical, civil, computer software, and environmental engineers. The United States will also need workers in other high growth industries including nanotechnology, geospatial technology, and the life sciences, to name a few.
The U.S. Department of Labor plays a role in helping workers acquire the training and education they need to access these jobs. The Department, as some of you may know, is one of the largest regulatory departments in the U.S. government. Its mission is to protect the health, safety, retirement security, and competitiveness of America's workforce. And, it carries out this mission with a budget of about $51 billion — give or take a few billion — and about 17,000 workers.
Providing a higher-skilled, more educated workforce is clearly the future for a developed country such as the United States in the worldwide economy. The United States cannot compete and does not want to compete with countries that produce low-paying, low-skilled jobs. A key feature of our country's approach is to identify the sectors of the economy that are growing and the skills needed for the new jobs being created. America's workforce is the most productive workforce in the world, according to a study by the International Labor Organization (which is a part of the United Nations) released on September 3rd of this year. For the United States to remain competitive in the worldwide economy, our workforce must have access to the education and training they need to continually update their skills.
That's why the President has emphasized education reform from the kindergarten to the 12th grade levels. American schools are not producing enough students who study STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), so this is a problem we are trying to address. One of the first things President Bush did when he took office was to introduce the most significant education system reform in 50 years. A strong grounding in the fundamentals is essential to developing an educated workforce that can thrive in the 21st century global economy. In addition, it is our experience that workers do best when they have the opportunity to continually update their education and skills throughout their working life.
That's why our country focuses on job training after formal education. And, a key mission of the U.S. Department of Labor is to help increase the skills level of the workforce. In fact, the Department spends about $9.5 billion annually to help unemployed workers access job training and employment services of all kinds, to help them find jobs.
The Labor Department also helps to connect workers with jobs through 3,200 publicly-funded "Employment Career Centers." These offices or centers are found in every state and they are an important part of our country's investment in workers and worker training.
These are independent nonprofit entities operated in conjunction with state and local governments which receive federal funding, but are run by a board of directors at each location. Employers are encouraged to sit on the boards of these nonprofit organizations to provide input as to the types of skills needed in the workplace.
At these centers, unemployed workers can find out all about the various government programs available to them. These Employment Center offices are staffed by caring professionals and counselors and well-equipped with resources, such as banks of computers available to those who can't afford computers at home or lack access to computers, job resource libraries, and job banks. If someone doesn't know how to operate the computer or navigate the website, they will be taught how.
Unemployed workers who visit these Centers can get information about available jobs in their community, what skill-sets are needed to qualify for these jobs, where to acquire job training for these needed skills, counsel on how to market themselves and search for jobs, for example, including advice on how to write their resumes. They can get career counseling and a wide variety of other employment services and ancillary benefits.
The next step is expanding the capacity of the educational system to offer training for these jobs to workers.
In America, there are two-year institutions called community colleges that play a key role in skills training. Community colleges specialize in educating workers in technical skills that do not require a four-year college degree, but are technical enough to require some kind of postsecondary education. Workers attend community colleges to get certificates and degrees that allow them to become nurses, computer technicians, phlebotomists, and all sorts of other skilled occupations. Community colleges have many advantages. They are commonly located in most communities throughout America and thus are easily accessible. Classes are held in the evening and on weekends so workers who already have a job, but who may wish to advance to another career or job opportunity can attend them. The tuition is kept very low relative to four-year colleges. Community colleges have proven invaluable in helping our country close the skills gap.
Another way workers gain valuable training is through apprenticeship programs, many of which are provided by trade unions. Apprenticeships combine supervised on-the-job training with classroom instruction. And, apprenticeships play an important role in developing a workforce in many key industries, such as health care, information technology, and transportation.
So far, I've talked only about government efforts. It is worth mentioning that private sector employers in America spend tens of billions more every year on job training to upgrade the skill-sets of their workforce.
During this Administration's tenure, we will continue to promote a pro-growth agenda that will spur the creation of jobs for our workforce and emphasize the importance of education and job training. This is key to helping our workforce remain competitive in the 21st century worldwide economy.
One of the reasons America has been so resilient over the past six-plus years despite so many challenges, is the low tax rate in our country which allows more Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money. This has given workers more money to spend during an economic downturn, which stimulates the economy and provides more capital for entrepreneurial start-ups and further job creation. And it has worked. Despite unprecedented challenges over the past six years — an economic downturn, terrorist attacks, corporate scandals, the worst natural disaster in our nation's history and rising oil prices — our economy continues to create new jobs at a steady pace for a workforce that sees new entrants of nearly a million new workers a year and currently numbers more than 153 million.
Finally, let me note another strength that contributes to America's competitiveness in the worldwide economy, which Uruguay shares. Both the United States and Uruguay share a commitment to democracy, respect for the rule of law, transparency, and accountability. These values — along with a productive and skilled workforce — are strong competitive advantages in the global economy.
As employers, you are creating jobs and hope and opportunity for the sons and daughters of Uruguay. I'm looking forward to touring Zonamerica and the Ingenio ["een-HAY-nee-oh"] Business Incubator later this afternoon. Both of these sites are great examples of the progress being made in Uruguay to create new and innovative jobs that will attract and keep workers in the Uruguayan labor force. By working together, the United States and Uruguay can continue to ensure that the benefits of democracy and growth are shared by all.
Thank you for inviting me to be here today.
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