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Remarks Prepared for Delivery by
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao
Johns Hopkins Project Reach Visit
Baltimore, Maryland
Friday, January 6, 2006
Thank you, Ron [Peterson, President, Johns Hopkins Health System & The Johns Hopkins Hospital].
I am delighted to be here today with you and Lieutenant Governor Mike Steele and Pauline Paulk, [Vice President of Human Resources for Johns Hopkins]. And I want to thank Governor Ehrlich for sending two of his cabinet secretaries to join us—Aris Melissaratos, Secretary of Economic Development, and Jim Fielder, Secretary of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.
The last time I was at Johns Hopkins was in March of 2004, to announce one of the very first health care grants under the President's High Growth Job Training Initiative. Johns Hopkins received $3 million to launch Project Reach, which helps health care workers upgrade their skills.
I am delighted to return to get an update on how that grant is progressing. As the President said in his remarks today, job training is key to helping our nation's workers remain competitive in the 21st century. Programs like this one help workers keep their skills up to date, so they can take advantage of the new opportunities being created in our economy.
I just announced the new employment numbers for December this morning. They cap a year of steady, solid growth and good news for America's workers. 413,000 new jobs were created in the last two months, for a total of 2 million net new jobs in 2005. That's 31 straight months of job creation, with more than 4.6 million net new jobs created since May 2003. More Americans are working than ever before in our history—142.8 million people. And the unemployment rate, just updated today, is at 4.9 percent, which is a half of a percent lower than one year ago. That's an average unemployment rate of 5.1 percent for 2005. Now that's a real milestone. Only 7 times in the last 35 years has the average annual unemployment rate for our country fallen that low. In fact, the initial unemployment claims reported this week dipped to a 5-year low!
Many of the new jobs being created pay above average wages. But, they require higher skills and more education. That's why the President is so focused on job training. In fact, he launched two Presidential initiatives to give workers greater access to quality job training.
The first is the President's High Growth Job Training Initiative, which the U.S. Labor Department administers. We have awarded more than $256 million to projects like the one at Johns Hopkins. These projects bring together state and local workforce agencies, local employers and education providers to train workers for good paying jobs in high growth fields. The goal is to close the skills gap, which is a key reason why as many as 4 million jobs are going unfilled today.
The second is the President's Community-Based Job Training Initiative, which is also administered by the U.S. Labor Department. It has provided $125 million in grants to 70 community colleges across the nation to train workers in high growth fields that pay good wages. Some of these sectors include health care, energy, advanced manufacturing, technology, biotechnology and the skilled trades.
The Department recently released its updated Occupational Outlook Handbook. Once again, our research has shown the demand for skilled health care professionals is very strong. Home-health aides, medical assistants, physician assistants and registered nurses are among the fastest growing occupations in America. These jobs offer good pay and the opportunity to help fellow Americans live healthier lives. That's why I'm pleased to be here today, to highlight these great opportunities.
The best way to continue this progress is to stay on the path the President has charted for steady, consistent growth. One of the best ways to do that is to make the President's tax cuts permanent, so workers can keep more of their hard-earned wages.
It also means enacting the President's entire plan to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. High energy prices are a tax on the economy that is passed along to everyone and slows job creation.
And it means giving workers more ownership and control of their health care, their pensions and their job training. That's why the President supports Association Health Plans for small businesses and their employees. And that's why he has proposed Health Savings Accounts for workers. And that's why he has called for strong pension reforms to safeguard workers' retirement security.
This Administration understands that as the economy strengthens, the pace of change is also accelerating—not only in our country but in the world. The typical, 40-year old American worker today has held 10 jobs between the ages of 18 and 38. So it is more important than ever before to empower workers by giving them greater control over all aspects of their working lives.
Let me conclude by saying that America's workers have every reason to be confident about the future as we begin this New Year. There are challenges ahead—including restoring the Gulf Coast and helping workers in industries undergoing difficult transitions. But thanks to the resiliency of our economy and the President's leadership, our country faces these challenges from a position of strength. An inherited recession, the attacks of 9/11, the war on terror, corporate scandals—even devastating hurricanes and rising oil prices—have not been enough to throw our economy off the growth track. In fact, our economy enjoys the highest growth rate of any major industrialized nation—4.1% in the 3rd quarter of 2005.
Let's continue this progress by allowing the President to finish the job, so America's workers can face the future with confidence.
Now, we will take a few questions.
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