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News Release

OPA News Release: [09/03/2007]
Contact Name: David James or Jennifer Coxe
Phone Number: (202) 693-4676
Release Number: 07-1351-NAT

America’s workforce: healthy, competitive and growing

U.S. Labor Department releases report on state of U.S. workforce – Labor Day 2007

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor today released America’s Dynamic Workforce 2007, a new report highlighting major trends in the American labor market and the importance of education and skills training to maintaining the competitiveness of America’s workforce.

"America's workforce is the envy of the world! Despite some recent market uncertainties, the fundamentals of the American economy are strong, unemployment is near record lows, overall compensation continues to increase, and more than 8.3 million new jobs have been created since August 2003,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. “What our country does face is a ‘skills gap.’ In a worldwide economy, the competitive strength of America's workforce lies in its productivity, innovation, creativity and knowledge base. The majority of new jobs created over the next decade will require more skills, higher education and pay above average wages, so it is important to ensure that workers are able to get the education and training they need to access these growing opportunities.”

Here are some of the current trends that illustrate the state of the economy and importance of education and job training: Many of these figures were compiled from the newly released “America’s Dynamic Workforce 2007,” which is available online at http://www.dol.gov/asp/media/reports/workforce2007/.

Highlights of America's Workforce: Labor Day 2007

In the first half of 2007, the national unemployment rate ranged between 4.4 percent and 4.6 percent. That is a full point lower than the average 5.7 percent unemployment rate of the 1990s.
As of June 2007, more than 8.3 million net new jobs had been created in the United States since August 2003.
Job growth in 2006 alone netted 2.3 million new jobs.
By June 2007, total jobs reached an all-time high of 138.0 million – nearly 5.5 million more jobs than the pre-recession high of February 2001.
Through June 2007, the United States experienced 46 consecutive months of job growth.
Unfilled job openings have increased by one million since 2003 and averaged 4.2 million vacancies at the end of May 2007.
Between 2001 and 2006, non-farm labor productivity increased 15.3 percent and real compensation per hour increased 7.2 percent.
Between 2001 and 2006, much employment growth was in industries with above average hourly earnings. Employment in professional and business services, construction and financial activities (all paying above average) increased 2.5 million.
Between 2001 and 2006, employment in jobs associated with bachelor’s degree or higher educational attainment increased 18.8 percent – faster than any other category.
In 2006, employer-paid benefits such as health insurance, paid leave, retirement savings, life insurance, workers’ compensation insurance, Social Security contributions and unemployment insurance amounted to 30 percent of average total compensation.
The United States leads the world in manufacturing, accounting for 21 percent of worldwide manufacturing value-added, followed by Japan (13 percent), China (12 percent) and Germany (eight percent).
With gross domestic product per hour worked at $48.30 in 2005, American workers are among the most productive in the world.
Between 1970 and 2006, the proportion of persons age 25 to 64 with a bachelor’s degree or higher more than doubled.