New U.S. Workers Lack Vital Skills, 3 Cabinet Members Say
American workers lack the education and skills needed to improve the nation’s productivity and competitiveness, the secretaries of labor, commerce and education said in a report issued today.
“As America heads toward a more demanding, skill-intensive economy, a literate, educated work force is essential to our ability to compete in the world marketplace,” Labor Secretary Ann Dore McLaughlin said at a conference held with leaders from business, education and labor.
The 61-page joint report by the three Cabinet officers found that entry-level workers lack basic skills such as English, mathematics and science.
“Our young entrants into the labor force are proving to be disturbingly deficient in these skills,” Commerce Secretary C. William Verity said.
Two-thirds of the 134 employers consulted for the report said today’s applicants for entry-level jobs do not meet their needs.
The gap between the poor qualifications of many workers and the growing demands of high-technology industries is hampering productivity and lessening America’s ability to compete with other industrialized nations, the report found.
“If we fail to meet the challenge of becoming more and more of a global market, we will see more and more jobs being exported from the United States,” James Burge, a vice president of Motorola Inc., told the conference.
Education Secretary William J. Bennett called for an all-out effort to boost the standard of education.
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