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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: (202) 693-4650
Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman celebrated America's "remarkable
economic prosperity" when she spoke today to the Detroit Economic Club and
announced that several major corporations and the United Auto Workers have
pledged to help with training and jobs for those who have been left out of the
economic expansion the nation's out-of-school youth.
The commitments were made by UAW-General Motors, DaimlerChrysler, Sears
Roebuck & Co., Ford Motor Co., CVS Corp. and the New York Financial
Services Partnership for Youth. These new commitments to support youth training
and provide them with work experience represent a milestone in Secretary
Herman's effort to build a national Youth Opportunity (YO!) Movement.
"These commitments to helping young people get the training and jobs
they need will help them to not only survive but thrive in the 21st century,"
Herman said.
Herman told members of the Detroit Economic Club that "we are enjoying a
time of remarkable economic prosperity. This expansion has been so strong, and
so sustained that the benefits of economic growth have flowed quite literally
to millions of people who were once cut off from the economic mainstream."
She cited an unemployment rate that is the lowest in 30 years, including
record lows for African-Americans and women. "Real wages are keeping pace with
productivity and inflation remains tame," she said.
Herman said the Labor Department is putting policies and programs in
place to "raise the skills for workers, lower the barriers to employment and
get more Americans on the road to success. As we stand at the beginning of a
new century, we are putting a real focus on a real new beginning, and we're
putting it right where it should be our nation's young people.
"Most importantly, we have made a historic change in the way we address
the needs of people who face the greatest barriers to employment," Herman said.
Welfare-to-work initiatives have made it possible for employers to reach a
previously untapped pool of workers.
"We already have the essential ingredients for continued success," the
labor secretary said. "We have expansion. We have growth. And we have untapped
human capital. And as we stand at the door to the new millennium, our challenge
is to combine these ingredients into a strategy that will ensure our nation's
prosperity is enjoyed by all."
Herman emphasized the importance of shared prosperity, especially for
out-of-school youth, where the unemployment rate for high school dropouts is
over 6 percent; for African-American teens it is 25 - 30 percent.
"Employers across the country tell me they are desperate for new
workers," she said. "But I know as labor secretary, we don't have a worker
shortage in this country, but we do have a skills shortage. And there is no
better way to fill that skills gap than to focus on our young people."
She continued, "Our President has committed one billion dollars the most
significant investment in a generation to help America reclaim its youth. As we
look toward the challenges and the opportunities of the future, we can
ill-afford to have a generation of young people who may never know what it is
to work."
In connection with the Youth Opportunity grants that will fund education
and job training programs, Secretary Herman is building the YO! Movement, a
national partnership with the private sector. "We are inviting everyone to get
on board," she said. "Government leadership, business leadership, labor
leadership, community-based leadership and celebrity role models are joining
with us to form a circle of support that will help us get more young people on
the road to success.
"We recognize that you don't fix the roof when it's raining. You fix it
when the sun is shining. And the sun is certainly shining on America today. And
our role is to continue those winning odds by investing in the 15 million young
people who are the workers of tomorrow."
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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