National Skills Summit

Office of the Secretary

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National Skills Summit
Skills Summit Highlights

A Skills Shortage, Not a Worker Shortage

I convened the National Skills Summit because I believe we must do everything we can to make the promise of America the practice of America. We have an unprecedented challenge to find the new talent so urgently needed to continue to grow our economy.

I have often said that we do not have a worker shortage, we have a skills shortage. There is an important difference. To say there is a worker shortage is to say the people we need do not exist. But they do exist. I know some of them personally, and so do you. They are people with bills to pay, children to raise, and dreams to pursue. What they lack are the skills demanded by today's economy.

Nowhere is America's skills shortage more acute than in the burgeoning high-tech field. For our nation to prosper, every American must have access to training in the high-tech skills that are necessary to compete in today's labor market. And we must train workers already on the job so they have access to high-tech skills that can make or break career success.

Our economy is strong - unemployment is at a near-30-year low, inflation is low and stable and more than 22 million jobs have been created since the Clinton-Gore Administration took office. There couldn't be a better time to invest in America's untapped labor potential and to support workers as they compete in the digital-age economy.

It will take the partnership of government, community, labor, and business to ensure that no one is left behind in the dynamic economy of the 21st Century. As the examples presented here show, we are learning that partnership leads to innovation, that innovation creates solutions, and that training pays off for everyone.

I think you will be inspired - and challenged - by the "innovative practices" detailed here. They can be a blueprint for continuing to strengthen and expand our prosperity in every community across our nation.

Alexis M. Herman U.S. Secretary of Labor