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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: 202/219-7316
As we prepare to celebrate the contributions working people
have made to the strength, prosperity and well-being of our nation this Labor
Day, our economy continues to perform at a steady and strong pace. Today's
employment situation report heralds a very prosperous Labor Day.
For the third month in a row, the report shows an overall
unemployment rate of 4.5 percent. For the fourteenth month in a row,
unemployment has remained below five percent. We continue to see high growth in
the high-tech industries. The message is clear: this economy is increasingly
unlimited to those with the right skills.
That is why, as we have much to celebrate, we also have
challenges ahead of us. And as a nation we must face them together. There are
15 million out-of-school youth in our country, 70 percent of whom have a high
school degree or less. As I reported in my Labor Day address yesterday at
Harvard University, this population has fallen behind.
Now is the time to take on this challenge. President
Clinton and I believe that we must invest in these young people. We must
identify, develop and expand their potential. We must solve this problem by
focusing on the whole person and the whole community. On this Labor Day--when
we pay tribute to the social and economic achievements of the American
worker--we must resolve to finally move the high rate of youth joblessness from
the statistics books to the history books.
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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