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Remarks Delivered by
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao
Dedication of the Elaine L. Chao Auditorium
William F. Ekstrom Library at the University of Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
Friday, April 21, 2006
Thank you, President Ramsey, for that very warm welcome!
It is an honor to be here today, and to have my name associated with this wonderful new resource for our community. I want to thank the Board of Trustees and everyone who made this day possible.
As many of you know, the University of Louisville has a very special place in my heart. It is my husband's alma mater. So, let me recognize my husband, Senator Mitch McConnell, your Senator and Assistant Majority Whip in the United States Senate. He has said many times that the education he received here helped inspire him to dedicate his life to public service. And, today, you'll notice that he's taking his turn to be the adoring spouse.
Let me also thank Lt. Gov. Steven Pence and his wife, Ruth Ann Cox Pence, for coming today.
Thank you, President Ramsey, for mentioning my parents, James and Ruth Chao, who were able to join us today. Without them, I literally would not be where or who I am today. And, I'm also so pleased that my sister, Angela Chao, can be here as well.
As President Ramsey mentioned, more than 40 years ago my father made the courageous decision to leave Asia and come to America in an effort to try to make a better life for our family. It took him three long years before he was able to save enough to send for us. I still remember how excited we were to go to America. It didn't even register with us that we were going to have to go on a cargo ship because that was all he could afford. Looking back now, it must have seemed so frightening to my mother, a pretty young woman in her 20s with three young daughters, to board a vessel crewed with men for a journey across the oceans that would last nearly two months and over 7,000 miles.
All we thought of was coming to America and the joy of being reunited with my father.
I don't have to tell you that our initial years were difficult. It was hard to make friends because we didn't speak the language. Ordinary things that you all would take for granted were strange for our young family.
I will never forget one particular evening in the fall, not long after we arrived in this country. An unexpected knock came at the door of our one-bedroom apartment in Queens. We opened the door to find little masked people demanding food. We thought we were being held up! We didn't know what to do, so we gave them the only thing we had — the last of our precious oranges. It was only later that neighbors told us about Halloween and the American custom of "Trick or Treat!"
And I'll let you in on a little secret — my very first job was in a library! And, when my family first came to this country we shared a little ritual every Saturday — a trip to the library to take out books. We walked 45 minutes to the library, because we didn't have a car, and 45 minutes back with about 10 books each. I remember reading Beverly Cleary's books, especially the ones about Ramona Quimby. I have to confess because I'm the oldest in my family — I kind of sympathized with Ramona's older sister about Ramona's antics. In reading these and other books, that's how I learned about America and explored worlds I could only dream of then. So, I have a special love for the priceless resources that are housed in libraries.
I am also grateful for so much! First, America welcomed my family and me with hope and opportunity. Kentucky gave me the love of my life, and embraced me as a daughter. Then the University reached out and adopted me as an alumna. I may work in D.C., but my home is here in Kentucky. Some people take a bus to work — I take the plane!
So, today, let me share with you a vision of — and a challenge for — our country's future that I have been privileged to observe as U.S. Secretary of Labor.
When young people ask me what the future holds, I say with confidence that the world today is what we make it. In today's rapidly changing worldwide economy, creativity and innovation are more important than ever before. So the old adage — do what you love and the rest will follow — is not a cliché. It's actually very good advice.
We have many reasons to be optimistic about the future. Despite the difficult challenges of the past five years, our country is doing well. That's because America is a very special place, in which each person is empowered to pursue his or her dreams.
The combined synergy of each person pursuing his or her dreams has created a powerful engine for growth. The United States finished 2005 with an annual GDP growth rate of 3.5 percent — stronger than any other major G-7 industrialized nation. Approximately 5.2 million net new jobs have been created in the U.S. since August 2003 — more than Europe and Japan combined. The national unemployment rate is 4.7 percent, lower than the 5.7 percent average unemployment rate of the decade of the 1990s.
Compare that with some of the countries of old Europe — like France and Germany, which have permanent unemployment rates near 10 percent. Their job growth is stagnant. Their long-term unemployment rates are three times that of the U.S. And their young people are taking to the streets, in part because of their high unemployment rates.
By contrast, a recent independent survey reports that U.S. college graduates are facing the best job market since 2001. And one-third of the entire U.S. workforce of approximately 150 million leave their jobs every year and found new ones, largely because of better opportunities. This dynamism and flexibility are unique in the world. And they are at the heart of our nation's competitive advantage.
But we must not be complacent. We are at a pivotal time in our nation's history. The path we take will determine our country's future in the 21st century. Will we look backward, and take the path of isolating ourselves from the worldwide economy? Or, will we continue to engage with the worldwide economy, which I believe is the path toward growth and prosperity?
The temptation to look backward can be strong, because our country is transitioning to a new kind of economy in which the old rules no longer apply. And that transition is creating understandable anxiety. The world of work — and the conditions of economic security — have changed dramatically over the past 50 years.
The lines between labor and management have blurred. More and more people work away from the office in flexible working arrangements connected by little more than a laptop, a cell phone, a Blackberry. And the average American worker will have had 10 jobs by the time he or she is 40 years old because of greater opportunities. Technology has not only accelerated the rate of change on the assembly line and the supply chain. It has changed the expectations of workers, who are demanding more customized flexibility in the workplace.
Organizations and employers that do not respond to the new demands of workers for customized flexibility will be at a disadvantage or left behind.
That's why we need to respond to demands for flexibility in the private-sector workplace. Did you know that government workers have the option of choosing paid time off as an alternative to overtime, so they can take care of family and personal needs? And government workers also have the option of re-arranging their work hours from week to week. But private-sector workers don't have this flexibility. That's why this Administration has proposed to extend comp time and flex time, on a voluntary basis, for private-sector workers.
Flexibility is a critical part of the new workplace paradigm of the 21st century. But it is not the only one. In the past, investment in infrastructure or capital largely determined the success of an enterprise. In the 21st century, there is an additional criteria — knowledge, which is the currency of the new economy. And the key to fostering knowledge is the development and deployment of one of our most precious resources — human talent.
In many areas of knowledge, our nation remains at the forefront. By nearly every metric, the U.S. leads the world in science and technology. With only about 5 percent of the world's population, the U.S. employs nearly one-third of all scientists and engineers. And the U.S. accounts for approximately one-third of all R&D spending in the world — as much as all the rest of the major industrialized nations combined.
The University of Louisville is a wonderful example of our country's pursuit of advanced knowledge. It is working to become a world-class, research-based institution in immunology. Our challenge, as a nation, is to invest in the human talent, education and training that allow institutions like this one to flourish.
A great new tool to help our nation and our workers thrive is the American Competitiveness Initiative, which the President announced in the State of the Union address in January. It addresses the core issues at the heart of our nation's competitiveness, which is innovation and research. Since 2001, the federal investment in research and development has increased 50 percent. That's the largest sustained increase since the Apollo space program in the early 1960s.
But more needs to be done. So, this Initiative pledges an additional $136 billion in national resources over the next decade to:
- Increase U.S. investments in research and development;
- Strengthen U.S. education in math and the sciences; and
- Encourage entrepreneurship and innovation.
It will support universities that provide world-class education and research opportunities. And it will create new job-training opportunities to help workers improve their skills and better compete in the 21st century.
One part of the Competitive Initiative encourages training and it is called Career Advancement Accounts. These accounts will be administered by the Department of Labor and are modeled after Pell Grants. They would empower workers with up to $3,000 — which could be renewed for one more year — that would give them greater control and choice in selecting the education and training that suits them best.
Training is so important! More than two-thirds of the new jobs that will be created will be in occupations that require some kind of post-secondary education. Now, post-secondary education doesn't necessarily mean a 4-year college degree. Some of the strongest demand is for workers with 2-year degrees in specialized fields from community colleges. And apprenticeship programs offered by the skilled trades are another wonderful way to gain highly marketable skills.
But even the skilled trades today require the ability to understand and operate complex equipment and processes controlled by technology. Operating Engineers, for example, need to know about computerized systems and controls in order to operate and maintain the heating and cooling machinery of a modern office building.
There are other Presidential Initiatives to help workers ensure that their skills match the new jobs being created in a knowledge economy. One is the High Growth Job Training Initiative, which identifies and trains workers for sectors of the economy that are growing. Another is the Community Based Job Training Initiative, which expands the capacity of community colleges to train workers. These are just a few of the many ways in which the Department of Labor can help workers prepare for the challenges of the 21st century.
But it's also important to recognize that government is not the only entity that invests in training. The private-sector investment in job training far exceeds that of the public sector.
And yet, there is a growing skills gap in our country. That is the mismatch between the new jobs being created and the skills of our nation's workforce. It is one of the most critical challenges facing our workforce today.
Workforce issues are much more important today than they were 20 years ago. For most of the last century, the earnings advantage of holding a 4-year university degree was not as great as it is now. Almost anyone with a high school education could find a job that would allow them to support a family, own a home and build a career.
Today, high school serves only as the foundation for further education in universities, community colleges and the workplace. The expansion of opportunity in the worldwide economy has created many competitors. And technology has accelerated the rate of change in the workplace. Unless individuals take seriously their responsibility to complete their education and keep their skills relevant, they will be left behind.
Education is destiny. Workers aged 18 and over with a bachelor's degree today earn, on average, about twice that of workers with a high school diploma. Workers with an advanced degree make an average about four times what a high school diploma earns.
But the reality of this message is not getting through. High school dropout rates in the United States are shockingly high. About 1 million high school students a year drop out, and too many of them are minority students. And at a time when education is more important than ever before, about 30 million Americans read below basic proficiency levels. Another 60 million more read only at the most basic level. Our 15-year-olds rank 24th out of 29 developed nations in math literacy and problem solving. And nearly half of our 17-year-olds don't have the necessary math skills to work as a production worker at a modern auto plant.
What will be the economic future of these men and women over the next decade, when 63 percent of the new jobs being created require at least a bachelor's degree? How will they thrive?
Many public policy makers today are talking about an income gap in our society. When debating this issue, it's critical to reject easy answers, to look behind the numbers, and to recognize the core issues. Our country doesn't have an income gap, as much as it has an education gap. And the challenge, as public policy makers, community leaders, parents, students and workers, is to get that message through to the next generation — and to workers of every age.
Throughout our nation's history — we have not been afraid to adapt to change, even when it is unpleasant. That has been a singular strength of the American experience. When the United States was founded, for example, nearly our entire workforce was employed in agriculture. Today, only about 2 percent of American workers are in agriculture. Yet, we produce enough food to feed much of the world. This positive correlation between change and increased productivity has been a powerful historical advantage. And it is critical, not only to our success as a nation, but to the higher incomes and standards of living that American workers enjoy today.
That spirit of optimism — that the future will always be better — fuels the American experience. It is a quality shared by our nation's greatest leaders. It is in the heart of the entrepreneur, who starts a business and hires new employees. It brought my family to this country from halfway around the world. Hope and optimism nourishes courage, so we can face today's challenges and build a more hopeful and prosperous tomorrow.
So let me say again how honored I am to have my name associated with this wonderful gathering place, where learning can occur and ideas can be presented and exchanged. The University of Louisville has given so much to our community. Working together, we can continue to ensure that America remains a beacon of hope, opportunity and prosperity.
So, thank you for sharing this day with me and my family, and God bless you.
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