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A RECORD SIX MILLION U.S. JOB VACANCIES: 

REASONS AND REMEDIES 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE 

CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES 

ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

JULY 12, 2017 

Printed for the use of the Joint Economic Committee 

( 

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JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE 

[Created pursuant to Sec. 5(a) of Public Law 304, 79th Congress] 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

PATRICK J. TIBERI, Ohio, Chairman 

ERIK PAULSEN, Minnesota 

DAVID SCHWEIKERT, Arizona 

BARBARA COMSTOCK, Virginia 

DARIN LAHOOD, Illinois 

FRANCIS ROONEY, Florida 

CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York 

JOHN DELANEY, Maryland 

ALMA S. ADAMS, PH.D., North Carolina 

DONALD S. BEYER, JR., Virginia 

SENATE 

MIKE LEE, Utah, Vice Chairman 

TOM COTTON, Arkansas 

BEN SASSE, Nebraska 

ROB PORTMAN, Ohio 

TED CRUZ, Texas 

BILL CASSIDY, M.D., Louisiana 

MARTIN HEINRICH, New Mexico, Ranking 

AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota 

GARY C. PETERS, Michigan 

MARGARET WOOD HASSAN, New Hampshire 

WHITNEY K. DAFFNER, Executive Director 

KIMBERLY S. CORBIN, Democratic Staff Director 

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C O N T E N T S 

OPENING STATEMENTS OF MEMBERS

Hon. Patrick J. Tiberi, Chairman, a U.S. Representative from Ohio .................. 1 

Hon. Martin Heinrich, Ranking Member, a U.S. Senator from New Mexico ..... 2 

WITNESSES

Statement of Ms. Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Senior Fellow and Director of the 

Economics21 Program, Manhattan Institute ..................................................... 4 

Statement of Dr. David T. Harrison, President, Columbus State Community 

College ................................................................................................................... 6 

Statement of Mr. Scot McLemore, Technical Workforce Development, Manager, Honda North America, Inc. ........................................................................ 8 

Statement of Dr. Betsey Stevenson, Associate Professor of Public Policy at 

the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan ............... 10 

SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD

Prepared statement of Hon. Patrick J. Tiberi, Chairman, a U.S. Representative from Ohio ....................................................................................................... 36 

Prepared statement of Hon. Martin Heinrich, Ranking Member, a U.S. Senator from New Mexico .......................................................................................... 36 

Prepared statement of Ms. Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Senior Fellow and Director 

of the Economics21 Program, Manhattan Institute .......................................... 38 

Prepared statement of Dr. David T. Harrison, President, Columbus State 

Community College .............................................................................................. 62 

Prepared statement of Mr. Scot McLemore, Technical Workforce Development, Manager, Honda North America, Inc. ..................................................... 71 

Prepared statement of Dr. Betsey Stevenson, Associate Professor of Public 

Policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan 74 

Article titled ‘‘Our Miserable 21st Century’’ .......................................................... 78 

Response from Ms. Furchtgott-Roth to Questions for the Record Submitted 

by Senator Klobuchar .......................................................................................... 85 

Response from Dr. David T. Harrison to Questions for the Record Submitted 

by Senator Klobuchar .......................................................................................... 86 

Response from Mr. Scot McLemore to Questions for the Record Submitted 

by Senator Klobuchar .......................................................................................... 87 

Response from Dr. Betsey Stevenson to Questions for the Record Submitted 

by Senator Klobuchar .......................................................................................... 87 

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A RECORD SIX MILLION U.S. JOB VACANCIES: 

REASONS AND REMEDIES 

WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 2017 

UNITED STATES CONGRESS, JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE, Washington, DC. 

The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:00 a.m., in Room 

2020, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Pat Tiberi, Chairman, 

presiding. 

Representatives present: Tiberi, Paulsen, Schweikert, LaHood, 

Rooney, Maloney, Delaney, and Beyer. 

Senators present: Heinrich, Peters, and Hassan. 

Staff present: Breann Almos, Theodore Boll, Whitney Daffner, 

Connie Foster, Colleen Healy, Paul Lapointe, AJ McKeown, Thomas Nicholas, Russell Rhine, and Alex Schibuola. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. PATRICK J. TIBERI, 

CHAIRMAN, A U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM OHIO 

Representative Tiberi. Good morning, and welcome to the 

Joint Economic Committee’s hearing on job vacancies in the labor 

market. I want to especially welcome, from the Senate side, our 

ranking member, Senator Heinrich, as well as other members of 

the committee who expressed interest in exploring this important 

topic. 

On the surface, low unemployment and a large number of vacancies suggest that the labor market is tightening. However, wage 

growth has been slow and many potential workers remain on the 

sidelines. Something is not yet right with the U.S. labor market. 

I have heard from many employers in Ohio and around the country that they are still struggling to fill good-paying job vacancies. 

These employers tell me about people not being able to pass a drug 

test, people not having the skill set to qualify for job openings. 

I believe there are causes on the demand side as well as the supply side of the labor market, and among both are economic policies 

by the last administration that weakened the recovery of business 

investment, labor productivity, and work incentives after the last 

recession. 

Business investment and productivity must rise faster for wages 

to rise faster, and more people must join the workforce to raise economic growth. 

The U.S. population is still growing. Since just prior to the last 

recession, the population has increased by 22 million people of 

working age, yet the labor force has increased by only 6 million 

people. The baby boom generation is moving into retirement, but 

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people in their prime working years also are participating less in 

the labor force than before the recession. 

In addition to the work Congress and the administration are 

doing to reform taxes, improve regulation, and alleviate unnecessary government mandates, we must also focus our attention on 

improving the institutions that prepare our workforce for new challenges. That is why I have invited expert witnesses to this hearing 

who can provide perspectives from the economist’s, the educator’s, 

and the employer’s point of view. 

We must explore the value to the economy and individuals of 

sending ever more people to college, how well high schools position 

graduates for the workplace, how employer requirements inform 

the educational system, and what employers are contributing to the 

skill development of current and prospective employees. 

In the United States, we must find better ways to equip young 

people and workers of all ages with marketable skills and the ability to adapt to the changing market demands as they progress 

through their careers. 

I look forward to learning from the insights of our expert panelists today on how to improve worker proficiency, flexibility, and 

motivation. Faster economic growth and rising living standards for 

American families result from getting this policy right. 

With that, I now yield to our Ranking Member Heinrich for his 

opening statement. 

[The prepared statement of Chairman Tiberi appears in the Submissions for the Record on page 36.] 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MARTIN HEINRICH, RANKING 

MEMBER, A U.S. SENATOR FROM NEW MEXICO 

Senator Heinrich. Thank you, Chairman Tiberi. And I want to 

thank our panel for joining us here today. 

The employment picture is certainly brighter than it was 8 years 

ago, but not as bright as this country wants or needs. Too many 

Americans still can’t find a job or are in jobs that pay wages too 

low to achieve financial security. 

Employers complain that they can’t find candidates with the 

right skills to grow their business, and in some parts of the country, for example, many rural areas, have largely been left out and 

need basic investment. Today, we are focusing on one way to create 

opportunities for more Americans, namely by investing in education and training options. 

Some industries in some regions of the country face a mismatch 

between the skills employers need and the skills that workers 

have. Addressing this is important, but that alone won’t adequately 

improve the economy or strengthen financial security for families 

and for communities. To do that, Congress must work with State 

and local leaders to take an all-of-the-above approach that supports 

workers and businesses. 

In the 21st century economy, college is increasingly important for 

financial security. Congress has a significant role to play in making 

sure that students are not priced out of the future that they want 

and are ready to work for. Access to an affordable college degree 

must be available to every student who desires it. 

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We also know that a college degree is not and should not be the 

only path to a bright future. Career and technical education, apprenticeships, and other training programs lead to good-paying 

jobs. Here, community colleges have a critical role to play because 

they understand the needs of local employers, are committed to creating opportunities for their students, and can design programs 

and courses that are responsive to employers’ current and future 

needs. 

TechHire Albuquerque launched earlier this year in New Mexico 

using a Federal grant program. Central New Mexico Community 

College partnered with employers and State agencies to create an 

IT pipeline by providing training, work experience, and job placement. Graduates learn new computer skills, coding skills, earn industry-recognized credentials, and are able to put those skills to 

use with area employers. Employers are able to fill open positions 

with candidates that they know have proven skills, and that is the 

type of innovation and creative problem-solving Congress should be 

promoting. 

It is also critical that we target training at high-growth sectors 

of our economy. That is what Central New Mexico Community College has done with its Stemulus Center, offering coding boot camps 

and new classes in Java, Android, and Salesforce. 

This week, Senator Gardner of Colorado and I introduced the 

CHANCE in Tech Act, which encourages educators and businesses 

to start apprenticeship programs for the tech sector. This will connect more Americans to a growing sector where jobs are opening 

up each and every day. 

In an all-of-the-above approach, we must recognize that investing 

in the workforce starts well before college or even high school, for 

that matter. It starts by investing in proven programs that set children up for success later in life. This is why access to universal 

pre-K is so important and why I am a strong advocate of the twogeneration approach, which provides quality early education for 

children, while at the same time providing workforce training for 

those children’s parents. 

We have seen this work in New Mexico. The United Way Early 

Learning Center in Santa Fe offers year-round full-day services for 

children alongside technology, employment, and social service assistance for their parents. 

For workers to remain competitive in the future economy, learning and skills development must continue over the course of a lifetime. Companies must get back in the business of investing in their 

workers, not just because it is the right thing to do, but because 

it is the prosperous thing to do for the business and for workers 

alike. 

There is much work for us to do here. For the Nation to be competitive in the future economy we are going to have to find some 

new solutions. And I look forward to hearing from our witnesses 

with their ideas. 

Thank you, Chairman. 

[The prepared statement of Senator Heinrich appears in the Submissions for the Record on page 36.] 

Representative Tiberi. Thank you, Senator. 

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I would like to now introduce our expert panel of witnesses. 

First, Ms. Diana Furchtgott-Roth is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and the director of the Economics21 Program, recently served on the transition team for President Donald Trump. 

She served as chief economist at the Department of Labor from 

2003 to 2005. Before that, she served in multiple roles for the 

George W. Bush, George H. Bush, and Ronald Reagan administrations. She holds a BA in economics from Swarthmore College, and 

a master’s of philosophy in economics from Oxford University. 

Welcome. Thank you for being here. 

Dr. David Harrison is the fifth president of Columbus State Community College. In his role, he initiated innovative projects, such 

as the Preferred Pathway Program, which guarantees Columbus 

State graduates entry into Ohio’s superb universities, including our 

alma mater, the Ohio State University. He also led the formation 

of the Central Ohio Compact, a regional strategy among K through 

12 and higher education leaders, to help more students succeed in 

college and in the workplace. Under Dr. Harrison’s leadership, Columbus State has received multiple distinctions for its innovative 

efforts. 

Dr. Harrison, thank you for being here. And, as you know, I have 

a special place in my heart for Columbus State. I took real estate 

classes there and my two sisters went there. 

Scot McLemore leads the development and execution of talent acquisition and deployment strategies at Honda North America. He 

has spent 27 years at Honda in both engineering and human resource positions, with a focus on technical development. In true 

American fashion, he started as a manufacturing engineer in the 

welding department of the Marysville Auto Plant, which is just outside my district. He currently serves as co-chair of the Ohio Manufacturing Careers Council Image Committee, vice chairman of the 

Columbus City Schools STEM Industry Council, and is a member 

of several career and technical center advisory committees. 

Thank you for testifying today, Mr. McLemore. 

And last but not least, Dr. Betsey Stevenson. She is an associate 

professor with the University of Michigan, Gerald R. Ford School 

of Public Policy, and also with its Department of Economics. We 

Buckeyes promise not to hold that against you. Before that, she 

was a member of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers. 

She also served as a chief economist at the Department of Labor 

from 2010 to 2011. Dr. Stevenson specializes in topics such as the 

impact of public policy on the labor market, women’s experiences 

in the labor market, and the economic forces shaping the modern 

family. 

Dr. Stevenson, thank you for being here today. I know you just 

got here, so thank you for coming from the airport directly. 

We will begin with our panelist from my far left. You are recognized for 5 minutes. 

STATEMENT OF DIANA FURCHTGOTT-ROTH, SENIOR FELLOW 

AND DIRECTOR OF THE ECONOMICS21 PROGRAM, MANHATTAN INSTITUTE 

Ms. Furchtgott-Roth. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

Thank you very much, Ranking Member Heinrich. It is such a 

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great pleasure to be here. Thank you very much, members, for coming to hear the testimony. 

As you heard, there is a big problem with job vacancies, with a 

mismatch between employers who want to find people to work, and 

yet we also have people sitting on the sidelines. I would like to just 

briefly in my oral testimony review five points: community colleges; 

streamlining benefits; removing constraints to economic growth, 

such as what the Federal Reserve is doing; tax policy; and regulatory policy. 

I know that Dr. Harrison is going to talk about community colleges, but I at least want to mention their very important role, how 

they can increase the earnings power and upward mobility of their 

students. 

I performed research using individual students in the State of 

Florida in 2009, showing that C students, students with a C average, performed much better when they went to community colleges 

and took a high-return degree. They were earning about $45,000 a 

year when they graduated, much more than C students who went 

to try to get a 4-year degree right away. However, community colleges are also a transfer point for people who want to get a 4-year 

degree. These results have been extended and confirmed by a study 

published by the Community College Research Center of Columbia 

University. 

To maximize students’ opportunities, the American Association of 

Community Colleges has implemented a Pathways Project in 30 

colleges to guide students toward high-return professions where 

they can get good jobs afterwards, steering them into degrees such 

as computer science and healthcare services. We call these fields 

high-return because there are high-paying jobs waiting for them 

when they graduate. So this is a very, very important component. 

Moving on to my next point about benefits, it is interesting to 

compare the United States and the United Kingdom, which since 

2000, have seen an increasing divergence in their labor force participation rate. It used to be, in 2000, that the United States had 

a higher labor force participation rate than Britain. Now, Britain 

has a higher labor force participation rate and a higher employment rate than the United States. 

What has been happening is that in the United States we have 

been raising our benefits, expanding eligibility for disability insurance, for food stamps, for other kinds of programs. The United 

Kingdom has been reducing its eligibility, and they have been 

steering people into work as a condition of continuing to get benefits. So in the United Kingdom, if you are offered a job, you have 

to take that job. In that way, more and more people are returning 

to the workforce, and the number of people on benefits has been 

declining. 

In 2016, 3.7 million people in the United Kingdom were on outof-work benefits, compared to 5 million in 2011. In contrast, in the 

United States, about 60 percent of nonworking men are on Federal 

disability benefits. So we might want to take a look at what the 

United Kingdom is doing. 

What we are also interested in doing is reducing constraints on 

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porate tax rate is way above those in OECD countries. It is 39 percent, compared with 25 percent, on average, for OECD countries. 

Canada has a 15 percent rate. 

If we could do one single thing to increase economic growth, it 

would be lowering the corporate tax rate and moving to a territorial system rather than a worldwide system, which would stop 

companies inverting and moving off to Canada and other countries, 

such as Ireland. So I would say that would be the most important 

thing that we could do. 

We also need to have regulatory reform, put in place cost-benefit 

analysis for regulations, and make sure that these regulations have 

benefits that justify the costs. Right in the EPA’s environmental 

impact analysis and it’s regulatory impact analysis for it’s carbon 

rule, it admitted that jobs were going to be lost because of these 

regulations, falling primarily on states such as Ohio. And we need 

to make sure that these benefits also are—there are good benefits 

and also that the costs are not geographically concentrated in certain high-energy States. 

Thank you very much. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Furchtgott-Roth appears in the 

Submissions for the Record on page 38.] 

Representative Tiberi. Thank you for your testimony. 

Dr. Harrison, you are recognized for 5 minutes. 

STATEMENT OF DAVID T. HARRISON, PRESIDENT, COLUMBUS 

STATE COMMUNITY COLLEGE 

Dr. Harrison. Chairman Tiberi, Ranking Member Heinrich, Vice 

Chair Lee, members of the Joint Economic Committee, thank you 

for the opportunity to speak with you today on this important topic. 

My name is David Harrison. I am president of Columbus State 

Community College, and we happen to be one of the 30 colleges nationally that are part of the American Association of Community 

Colleges Pathways cohort that my colleague just mentioned. 

I am pleased to be with you today to discuss the leadership role 

that community colleges can play in addressing job vacancies for 

employers and in providing people with pathways to successful careers. 

The gap between open jobs and qualified employees is widening, 

and the reasons are many. The Nation’s workforce is becoming 

more diverse. We have overemphasized the bachelor’s degree as the 

only path to success for young people, and our educational system 

has been slow to respond. 

You may be surprised to learn about today’s college student. 

Three-quarters of them commute to class while balancing jobs and 

family responsibilities. They are first-generation college students, 

adults in transition, and military veterans returning home. These 

are the students that are the solution to the vacancy problem, and 

we need to think differently about how to help them succeed. 

By overemphasizing the bachelor’s degree, we have not served 

many young people well, as more than half reach the age of 25 

without a postsecondary credential or an employable skill set. A 

technical credential is a better option for many of these students. 

Harvard University notes that jobs requiring an associate degree 

are growing at three times the rate as those requiring a bachelor’s 

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degree. Only a third of new jobs will require a bachelor’s degree, 

with the rest requiring an associate degree or technical certificate. 

Filling these 6 million jobs is possible with the right combination 

of strategies, including elevating the associate degree to prepare 

more people for high-demand jobs and expanding regional publicprivate partnership between K–12, community colleges, and employers. 

I am pleased to share with you today promising practices we 

have developed in central Ohio, built on a strong culture of publicprivate partnerships. American Electric Power funds a program at 

Columbus State called Credits Count that enables us to prepare 

students for technical careers starting in middle school and take 

college courses while they are still in high school, leading to a technical credential. 

JPMorgan Chase selected Columbus State as one of nine international partners to implement their New Skills at Work initiative, 

creating grade 9 to 14 career pathways for students in central 

Ohio. And we have partnered with Honda of America to develop a 

talent pipeline of electromechanical engineering graduates to address an urgent need. You will hear more about this from our great 

partner, Scot McLemore, whose testimony follows mine. 

But we won’t fill these 6 million jobs by focusing on young people 

alone. Demographics are not on our side. Many regions of the country, including Ohio, are projecting decreases in public elementary 

and secondary school enrollment. We must have policies that help 

military veterans and others in transition, as well as initiatives to 

address employment barriers due to transportation, childcare, and 

other factors. Employers who adopt fully inclusive employment 

practices are emerging as clear winners. 

Here again, public-private partnerships in central Ohio are producing results. The Ohio insurance industry partnered with several 

colleges, including Columbus State, to develop an educational pathway that mirrors the professional career path in the industry, with 

a specific focus on adult students. This effort has helped Nationwide Insurance hire more than 1,000 Armed Forces veterans, with 

the goal of hiring 1,000 more. 

The Federal Government can support these regional efforts in 

three key ways. First, expand programs that are working. The National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education program is an important source of venture capital for community colleges to develop programs in partnership with employers. At Columbus State, our NSF grants are focused in advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, data analytics, and logistics technology, all 

high-growth fields requiring specialized skills. 

Second, support programs that help adults in transition. The bill 

proposed by Senators Portman and Kaine to expand Pell grant eligibility to cover high-quality, short-term job training for low-income 

students could go a long way to help adult students prepare for the 

high-performance workplace. 

And finally, look to community colleges as the regional leader in 

convening effective partnerships with employers and other local 

groups to fill jobs, launch careers, and expand economic growth. 

Community colleges are purpose-built to address this workforce 

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issue. Most of us are already doing this work, and we stand ready 

to do more. 

Thank you for allowing me to be part of this conversation, and 

I look forward to your questions. 

[The prepared statement of Dr. Harrison appears in the Submissions for the Record on page 62.] 

Representative Tiberi. Thank you. 

Mr. McLemore, you are recognized for 5 minutes. 

STATEMENT OF SCOT McLEMORE, TECHNICAL WORKFORCE 

DEVELOPMENT, MANAGER, HONDA NORTH AMERICA, INC. 

Mr. McLemore. Thank you, Chairman Tiberi, Ranking Member 

Heinrich, and the members of the committee for hosting this hearing on the critical issue of workforce participation and workforce 

development. 

My name is Scot McLemore, and I serve as the manager of talent 

acquisition at Honda North America. In my role at Honda, I work 

to develop strategies to help address workforce challenges. Honda 

has more than 70 facilities in the United States, including 12 manufacturing plants that produce a wide range of products, including 

cars, trucks, light business jets, power equipment, and power 

sports products. More than 73 percent of Honda’s 30,000 U.S. associates work in manufacturing roles. In addition to our direct employment, Honda works with more than 600 U.S. suppliers, who 

employ tens of thousands of workers nationwide. 

Manufacturing jobs are high-paying jobs with good benefits, 

which should be highly attractive in our current economic climate. 

However, today, our ability to recruit and hire a qualified sustainable workforce is limited by two key factors. One, a shortage of 

young people interested in entering manufacturing; and two, a lack 

of prospective employees who have the essential skills needed to be 

successful in a manufacturing job. 

Modern manufacturing equipment and processes involve an integration of pneumatic, hydraulic, mechanical and computernetworked components. Too often, individuals do not possess the 

problem-solving ability, technical training, computer knowledge, or 

math skills needed to compete in the 21st century workforce. 

In order to address these problems, Honda has developed a number of educational initiatives and workforce training programs, 

which aim to build enthusiasm for future careers in manufacturing 

and provide potential employees with the necessary skills to compete in the modern manufacturing economy. Many of our programs 

are designed as public-private partnerships, including partnerships 

with academic institutions, local governments, and community organizations. While I will talk briefly about some of our programs, 

more information about them can be found in my written testimony. 

Honda believes that the first step in developing a technical workforce is to create excitement for manufacturing jobs through early 

engagement with students, parents, and educators. Beginning with 

middle school, Honda has partnered with several organizations to 

develop initiatives aimed at building interest in manufacturing and 

developing the critical thinking skills that are necessary to succeed 

in manufacturing. These initiatives include: a unique educational 

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video game for classroom use; mobile labs featuring robotics; and 

STEM-based summer programs. However, a bridge must be formed 

between creating interest in manufacturing and actually preparing 

individuals to have the analytical and technical skills to operate 

equipment found on today’s manufacturing floor. 

As such, we work with high schools and community colleges to 

develop curriculum, supplement classroom lessons with plant visits, provide mentorships and scholarships. Most importantly, we 

have established programs with community colleges that provide 

students with the opportunity to learn the technical skills necessary for a manufacturing career while simultaneously receiving 

their degree. 

An example of this is our partnership we have with Columbus 

State Community College, which is designed so students can work 

at Honda 3 days a week and go to school 2 days a week. This program gives students the chance to build technical skills while earning their degrees, allowing students a way to graduate debt free. 

Upon graduation, students may be offered a full-time position with 

the company. We have similar internship efforts in other States 

and communities where we have manufacturing operations in the 

United States. 

Because the technology in the automotive industry is constantly 

changing, we make a commitment to ensure that education does 

not stop once associates are hired. Honda remains committed to ensuring our existing workforce has the skills necessary to be part of 

our exciting future. To that end, we have established technical 

training centers near some of our manufacturing plants to help our 

associates stay current with technology and grow professionally. 

Going forward, we strongly believe that Honda’s future and the 

future of manufacturing in the United States rests in the hands of 

programs like the ones I have outlined. However, there must be a 

significant increase and expansion of these collaborative efforts to 

develop a 21st century workforce. Additionally, continued support 

and improved access for STEM education is critical to ensuring 

that our future workforce has the skills to compete in modern manufacturing. 

One step Congress can take immediately is to reauthorize the 

Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, which recently passed the House of Representatives. The current version of 

the bill will help encourage more collaboration between stakeholders to ensure students have a pathway to a relevant and meaningful technical career. Honda stands ready to work with Congress 

to help solve the critical workforce issues that stifle the full economic potential of our country. 

I am happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. McLemore appears in the Submissions for the Record on page 71.] 

Representative Tiberi. Thank you. 

Dr. Stevenson, you are recognized for 5 minutes. 

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STATEMENT OF BETSEY STEVENSON, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR 

OF PUBLIC POLICY AT THE GERALD R. FORD SCHOOL OF 

PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 

Dr. Stevenson. Thank you, Chairman Tiberi and Ranking Member Heinrich. It is a pleasure to be here, and I want to thank you 

for the invitation to testify today about the state of the job market. 

I want to start by placing the record number of job openings in 

the context of a strengthening labor market and an increase in dynamism. Businesses have continued to hire in large numbers, just 

again this June surpassing expectations. And over the past 6 years, 

we have seen the longest most persistent streak of job growth on 

record. 

All this growth is leading to more job openings, and perhaps 

more importantly, it is also leading more workers to quit their jobs. 

You might think that doesn’t sound like a good thing, but it is actually a great thing when workers feel confident enough to leave 

their jobs in order to seek out better opportunities. In fact, job 

changes are essential for workers to climb the ladder to better and 

higher paying opportunities. A return to a healthy level of churn 

is incredibly important and, frankly, we are not quite there yet. 

One of the most profound challenges our labor market faces is 

lackluster wage growth, so I want to spend most of my time talking 

about that. Wages provide a clear market-based signal of demand 

for skills, and one of the clearest signals is the high wages of college-educated workers compared to those with less education. That 

is not to downplay other forms of training, but I think it is essential to start by understanding that the earnings gap between college graduates and those without a college degree has grown steadily for decades and in recent years has been at an all-time high. 

The benefits of a 4-year degree are also seen in substantially lower 

unemployment rates and higher labor force participation rates, 

even compared to people with a 2-year degree. 

In addition, while there is concern about student loans, very 

clear research shows that most of the increase in student loan defaults is associated with borrowers at for-profit schools and other 

2-year institutions associated with weak employment outcomes. 

These findings underscore the importance of funding successful 

community college programs that are clearly linked to employment 

outcomes. 

One of the largest challenges the labor force faces in developing 

the skills of workers is ensuring that students from across the income spectrum have access to successfully and affordably complete 

a 4-year degree, because that is where the strongest demand is still 

being seen. 

In competitive markets, a skill shortage should lead businesses 

to pay higher wages. And yet researchers have consistently failed 

to find evidence of employers bidding up wages of workers in specific occupations or geographic areas, even when there is a big gap 

between the number of openings and the number of hires, and that 

represents a real puzzle. I think the biggest place we see this is 

in healthcare, where there are a lot of openings, not a lot of hires, 

but the wages aren’t picking up. 

Many economists have pointed to slowing productivity growth as 

one of the sources of the slow wage growth, but it is important to 

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recognize that, even if we were to solve that problem, in recent decades, there has been a disconnect between productivity growth and 

wage growth that we need to address. 

Some of the things that we are seeing is a decline in unionization, reduced worker bargaining power, and reduced worker mobility, and an increase in businesses engaging in clear anticompetitive 

labor market policies, including forbidding the sharing of pay information and requiring noncompete clauses, policies that are designed to restrict the ability of workers to make those changes that 

allow them to bid up their wages as they become more productive. 

Congress should seek to make the labor market as fair as possible 

by penalizing businesses that engage in such anticompetitive practices. 

Additionally, policies like updated overtime regulations, robust 

minimum wage, enforcing workplace protections are all key areas 

that are important to raise wages. 

Let me be clear, the current pace of job growth is unsustainable 

unless more workers elect to join the labor force, and without higher wages, that is very unlikely to happen. 

So let me conclude by saying that there is something else policymakers can do beyond training, which is provide stronger infrastructure to support jobs. Today’s workers, particularly lower wage 

workers, face challenges in getting to work without adequate public 

transportation, face challenges finding care for their children without adequate affordable childcare, and too often lose their jobs or 

are forced to quit when they need time off to care for a sick family 

member or their own illness. 

Better infrastructure—in the form of affordable childcare, paid 

family leave, and better public transportation—since it’s better infrastructure to support work, such as affordable childcare, etcetera 

to support work would clearly help attract more men and women 

to the labor force. Research has shown clearly that such policies 

would boost women’s labor force participation. 

Additionally, recent research has shown that roughly half of the 

drop in male labor force participation is due to men cycling in and 

out of the labor force. So making it easier for men and women to 

consistently hold onto a job will boost labor supply. 

Let me end by taking a moment to note some cultural changes 

that are going on with our labor market, because I know this committee is particularly interested in that. Many of our declining sectors are in traditionally male occupations, while traditionally female or more gender-mixed occupations are growing. These 

changes are going to require that we not only provide training for 

workers to successfully enter new occupations, but that we rethink 

how we provide that training and how we conceive those jobs so 

that there is greater diversity for men and women to enter the jobs 

that are going to offer them the highest pay, regardless of their cultural connotations. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Dr. Stevenson appears in the Submissions for the Record on page 74.] 

Representative Tiberi. Thank you. Thank you all for your very 

well-thought-out testimony. 

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12 

Dr. Harrison and Mr. McLemore, last month, this committee held 

a hearing on the opioid crisis. Ohio, and New Mexico are two 

States that have been hit hard by that crisis. One of the things 

that I hear from employers in central Ohio regarding that is that 

they have job openings, but folks can’t pass a drug test. 

So anything you can share with us on your experiences with respect to that, and are there approaches that we can take to address 

such a problem? 

Mr. McLemore. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is a very important question and concern. 

I think for employers across the U.S., including manufacturing 

obviously. Based on my experience, Honda has seen some impact 

from the opioid abuse situation, but compared to other employers 

within the State and across the U.S., it hasn’t had a very big impact currently. 

I guess in thinking about that situation, though, my concern is 

also with those that are not yet employed, meaning the youth of 

America, which we don’t know the full impact of that. So when 

thinking about that question, one of the things that I want to be 

aware of and take back to Honda, and work with our partners on, 

is understanding that situation and maybe incorporating those concepts with soft skill training as we go out to the high schools and 

middle schools, making sure that young people are aware of the impact of drug abuse and how it could negatively impact their career. 

But currently, we are not seeing as much of an impact as some 

other employers. 

Representative Tiberi. Dr. Harrison. 

Dr. Harrison. At the college, we know that our student body reflects the overall population, and we are in the early stages of trying to build this in as a career readiness component of our work 

so that students really are understanding what is going to be expected in the workforce. 

It is interesting the conversations that I have had with employers, because they are struggling with it and are addressing it in 

different ways. So recently, I was in a conversation with two different CEOs. One was talking about the fact that they were working so hard to find new people they were having to relax their drug 

policies; and the other CEO was going in exactly the opposite direction, in terms of trying to increase the scrutiny and tests even 

more. 

As you know, Mr. Chairman, in our State, our Governor has really made this a priority in the State budget, and it is something 

that we are really trying to wrap our arms around, because it is 

a statewide issue that is certainly hurting our State’s economy, but 

also hurting families. We also know, with our work at the college, 

is that it really is a multiplying effect, in that if one family member 

is affected, it really does affect the entire family. And that infrastructure is something that we really do pay attention to. 

Representative Tiberi. Thank you. 

Mr. McLemore, the comment in your testimony that the factory 

room floor or the version of the factory room floor is outdated. And 

I think of when my dad worked in a factory, and that image in my 

mind versus when I received my first tour of Honda of America, are 

quite different. 

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13 

How do we, or how do you, as someone in that industry, begin 

to try to tell kids who from a very young age, you got to get a 4- 

year degree, you got to get a 4-year degree, you got to get a 4-year 

degree? I am thinking of a constituent I spoke to yesterday, a mom 

whose daughter graduated from an Ohio college, a private college 

in Ohio, 4 years, well into the six figures, and she got a job as a 

public school teacher. A good job, she wants to do it, but the cost 

versus the employment, very different. Yet you have jobs that don’t 

require a 4-year degree. There are other factory jobs that are much 

different. 

How do you begin, or how do we begin, to help educate America’s 

youth that there are good jobs that you don’t need to get a 4-year 

degree? 

Mr. McLemore. Yes, Mr. Chairman, that is a great question. I 

think it is a big challenge for employers and manufacturers, and, 

the answer to that question I think really is in the model that we 

have created with Columbus State. 

So what you may find, I believe, in my written testimony that 

I wasn’t able to describe, is our ability to create a line of sight for 

parents and students in middle school, starting with our manufacturing game, that gives them a glimpse of and some experience of 

what it is like to be in a modern manufacturing environment. So 

this is a start, which we think is very innovative. 

But I think in addition to that, in our partnership with Columbus State, we go together, as an example, to a suburban high 

school near Columbus and in the Columbus School District and 

talk to parents and students directly about manufacturing careers, 

about the pathway, but also, we talk about the opportunity to continue that education through tuition reimbursement and partnerships that Columbus State may have with the Ohio State University, Miami, and other 4-year institutions in the State of Ohio. 

Once students, and specifically parents and many times the 

mothers of those children, understand those opportunities, it is like 

a light bulb going off, because they have no understanding that 

these careers are available just down the street. If I could add, 

what is quite interesting, the work study students that we have at 

Columbus State that we have made full-time offers to, seven of the 

eight of those students did not know Honda had those manufacturing careers before they started at Columbus State in that program. 

So our challenge is selling manufacturing. So we have partnered 

with the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, Jobs Ohio, and the Office of Workforce Transformation, to create a marketing strategy 

for the State of Ohio for all manufacturers. We have developed a 

toolkit, allowing them to go into schools and sell manufacturing. It 

is about changing the conversation. 

Representative Tiberi. That is pretty exciting. 

I am going to yield to our ranking member. 

Senator Heinrich. Thank you, Chairman. 

Dr. Stevenson, we have heard a lot about the critical role that 

skills play in workforce development, but it is certainly not the 

only challenge facing workers today. You touched on it a little bit 

in your testimony, but what are some of the other major challenges 

that we need to be thinking about to make sure that those workers 

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14 

can actually have access to that skills training, that education, and 

get on the path to higher productivity jobs? 

Dr. Stevenson. Thank you for that question. And I do think 

that you mentioned in your opening statement the need for an allof-the-above strategy. We see that there are big gaps between children’s start in life, and some of that starts with early access to preschool. It is very hard for kids to catch up when they have these 

very big gaps from the beginning. And it turns out that supporting 

early childhood education doesn’t just support the children, but it 

allows the parents to stay attached to the labor force. 

What we see is that the more people stay attached to the labor 

force and have continuous employment, the better they are able to 

build a career path and get those increases in wages. Gaps out of 

the labor force are bad for people’s wage growth. And there are lots 

of things that lead to gaps. Not having adequate paid family leave 

leads to gaps. And we have seen evidence of that across other countries. We have seen it in the United States. When we have had 

States like California pass paid family leave programs, you see 

more continuous employment, particularly of young moms. 

And as I mentioned in my testimony, I think some of the very 

compelling research coming out about young men is that they are 

cycling in and out of the labor force. They go, they get a job, but 

they don’t last very long. Then they take some time out. Then they 

run out of money and they go back and get a job. But that doesn’t 

lead to a pathway in which they are building a set of skills that 

are going to generate jobs. And some of that is due, you know, to 

the problems with drug use. Some of it is due to criminal justice 

problems. But there are lots of reasons in which workers don’t feel 

that they have access to an upward mobility. 

Senator Heinrich. You end up with a series of jobs, not a career path. 

Dr. Stevenson. Exactly. And I really want to emphasize how 

important workers seeing a career path and having a progress narrative is, a progress path where they see that if they continue to 

diligently work, they are going to get a raise. There are so many 

workers today who their real wages are no different than they 

might have been 20 years ago. And that does not create the incentives for workers to adopt the skills that we need in order for them 

to build greater productivity. 

Senator Heinrich. Dr. Harrison, I want to jump to you real 

quick. What do we need to do—and I assume you have some partnerships, or I hope you do, with high schools as well—to make sure 

that they see that early on, to know what some of those paths are 

and what some of those opportunities are? 

And then I also want to touch on the issue of, in talking to people who are struggling in the labor force, it seems to me that the 

worst of all possible worlds—and I have run across this in many 

cases—are the students who end up with a substantial debt burden 

from their college experience, but not the degree or the skill sets 

to actually be able to do something about that debt and their earning power to put that behind them. 

What should we be doing to make sure that, you know, we avoid 

that scenario with your students or other students across the country? 

LAP51NQ082 with DISTILLER

15 

Dr. Harrison. Thank you, Ranking Member Heinrich. 

First, with regard to your question on high schools, we are in 140 

high schools in 60 districts in our region and have actually almost 

5,000 high school students taking college coursework at any one 

time. One of the catalytic programs we have had has actually been 

funded by the U.S. Department of Education, their Investing in Innovation program (i3). We are the only community college in the 

country that was selected that is allowing us to work with seven 

districts with a high percentage of low-income students to really 

model and build in these kind of career paths, like we are doing— 

like we are doing with Honda. 

The disconnect with regard to the bachelor’s degree holder that 

has taken on a lot of debt and isn’t making enough money to service that debt is something we see all the time. We have got more 

students at Columbus State with bachelor’s degrees and even advanced degrees than we have ever had, because they haven’t been 

able to get a high-earning job based on the bachelor’s degree that 

they have. 

You all know the data, I am sure, as well or better than I do, 

but the average bachelor’s degree holder graduates with $30,000 or 

more in debt. It takes them over 20 years to pay it back. This is 

a generational kind of thing. So really helping students and families understand that they do have options is something that we are 

working hard on. 

We have got a great complement of universities in central Ohio, 

certainly led by Ohio State University, and are really promoting 

the 2 + 2 pathway to bachelor’s degree in a very public way, where 

students earn their freshman and sophomore year of the associate 

degree at Columbus State and then are guaranteed admission to 

Ohio State and other university partners, saving tens of thousands 

of dollars on the bachelor’s degree. 

The other thing that Scot touched on—and I do want to call out 

really the leadership that Honda has provided, and Scot specifically, in terms of elevating these career pathways, and not just for 

the benefit of Honda but for manufacturing generally. But if you 

do the math for the students in the co-op program that he is talking about, I will call out one student specifically, Anton, who was 

in I think our first class, a son of Filipino immigrants, started in 

our co-op program making $18 an hour while still in high school, 

graduated with his associate degree at the age of 19, walked in— 

I shouldn’t say walked in, earned a $60,000-a-year job at Honda, 

and now I think is in a bachelor’s degree program with full tuition 

reimbursement paid by Honda. So he is going to graduate with his 

bachelor’s degree in his early 20s, not only debt-free, but he has 

been making money since he was 18 from Honda. That is 

replicable, and that is something that we think is scaleable. 

Senator Heinrich. Thank you very much. 

Representative Tiberi. Good question. 

Representative Schweikert, you are recognized for 5 minutes. 

Representative Schweikert. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

And this is one of those, I have a fixation on this particular subject area, so please forgive me if I am slightly disharmonious, because we all have this habit of speaking our own book, our own life 

LAP51NQ082 with DISTILLER

16 

experiences, our own area of specialty, and I fear missing what 

many of us who are fixated on the actual demographics are seeing. 

So I would like to just run through a number of things. Can we 

actually do one big step backwards away from antidotals and actually first some discussion on what we see in the labor force participation numbers for typically some of the demographics in the number of our population that if it were post-1996 welfare reform, for 

that 10 years would have been actually in participation in the labor 

force and today are not. And we all screw up your name. Is it 

Furchtgott-Roth? 

Ms. Furchtgott-Roth. Furchtgott-Roth. You should just say 

Diana. 

Representative Schweikert. Furchtgott-Roth. You were the 

only one who actually mentioned some of the underlying data. First 

off, let’s actually just do backwards something you did mention. 

Sixty percent of males who are not in the labor force today are 

on—— 

Ms. Furchtgott-Roth. Are on some kind of disability benefits. 

Representative Schweikert [continuing]. Disability or a social 

entitlement program right now. 

Ms. Furchtgott-Roth. Yes. The point is that these have been 

expanded. They were expanded during the Great Recession, and 

then this expansion has stayed rather than being ratcheted back. 

So our labor force participation rate right now is 62.8 percent, and 

it has been around 66, 67 percent in the past. And some people say 

this is because older workers are retiring, the baby boomer’s retiring. But really, the 55 and over labor force participation rate is rising. It is the 25 to 54 that we are concerned about. 

Representative Schweikert. You actually beat me to something we have seen in some of the fascinating data is actually older 

actually choosing to stay in the labor force much longer. 

Ms. Furchtgott-Roth. Yes. 

Representative Schweikert. Some of that may be savings and 

retirement and retirement lifestyle aspects. 

If I wanted to find literature to actually look at the post-1996 

welfare reform labor force participation velocity of particularly my 

population moving from let’s call it lower tiers into true middle 

class, where would you send me? 

Ms. Furchtgott-Roth. Well, there has been a lot of very interesting work on mobility. Scott Winship, who works with the Joint 

Economic Committee for Senator Lee, has done some of the best 

work on that. And so I would say you should go to Scott Winship 

and just find his latest articles. He is right on your staff. He is one 

of the leading experts in the United States on mobility and inequality and these different kinds of issues. He has written extensively 

on it. 

Representative Schweikert. Thank you. And my fixation to 

particularly staff and everything else is that looking for a more holistic approach, because my fear is this constant saying I am going 

to do a job training program here, I am going to do this here or 

do this here doesn’t help me when I am looking at just shy of 100 

million of my brothers and sisters in the Nation, what percentage 

of that should probably still be participating. 

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17 

Dr. Harrison, in a number of meetings I have had—now, this is 

actually more for the high-tech community. I had a fascinating discussion a couple months ago with I think it was Oracle, who are 

saying they are tired of hiring 4-year computer science degrees and 

then spending the next couple of years getting them an Oracle certificate, whether that be Oracle or SaaS. 

Are we in a world where it is time to have a revolution in the 

accreditation world, where I can do my AA, I can do my part, and 

the accreditation world says, I am going to take a little of this, a 

little of this, a little of that, and actually start doing things that 

are actually part of what labor markets demand? 

Dr. Harrison. Well, I think that is possible. I think it would 

have to be employer-driven. I think that is the, at least at the community college level, kind of the barometer that we would use. And 

the ability for employers to determine—— 

Representative Schweikert. But in your world as a community college, are you allowed to produce programs and say, this 

doesn’t meet our accreditation standards, but Honda really wants 

to hire someone who has done these classes? I mean, it is almost 

more community college of coder camps or learning to run CNC 

equipment or other things. 

Dr. Harrison. We are allowed and, in fact, it is becoming more 

commonplace. Our State just approved a short-term certificate 

pathway that is going to allow for more of these kinds of things. 

The computer scientists that Oracle was talking about, they are 

coming to Columbus State to learn Amazon web services, cloud 

technology, or Apple Swift programming. 

Representative Schweikert. Okay. Because that is part of my 

holistic approach is I think it is a revolution, everything from what 

we consider to be education anymore down to the job skills to—we 

have to actually also start to explore if you want to see why 

healthcare doesn’t have wage inflation, how do we compensate 

healthcare? Well, at CMS, you know, we functionally have government control in pricing. 

I mean, there is a series of these things that we throw out in discussion, but if you drill down into them, we are at fault in the way 

we build sort of this regulatory mechanics. So I know I am way 

over time, but it is a powerful discussion for our society. 

Representative Tiberi. Senator Peters, you are recognized. 

Senator Peters. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

And I think that those are interesting points, and I am going to 

explore some of those a little bit further if I have time as far as 

looking at some new paradigms as to how we provide education, 

which I think is interesting. 

But I am also interested in data. And as we were talking about 

the openings, the job openings that are available, I would like to 

have a better sense of where those job openings are. There has 

been a discussion about manufacturing. Certainly, I hear that as 

I travel around Michigan. Manufacturers are having similar issues 

as you are having in Ohio; it is no different in Michigan. 

But when I looked at some Bureau of Labor data, it seems in 

terms of openings, it is in areas like food services. It is in hospitalities, which are far above the average of openings. Many, many 

more openings in those jobs tend to be lower wage jobs. 

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Dr. Stevenson, I think you mentioned some of that in your testimony. Where is the data? Where are most of the job openings out 

there? What sorts of skills? What sort of job classifications? What 

I saw are healthcare, social assistance, day-care, food services. Is 

that accurate? Where’s the data? 

Dr. Stevenson. So I think it is really important that we distinguish between job openings and job growth, because we do have a 

lot of underlying churn. So there will be a lot of hiring, millions of 

jobs hired in manufacturing, even if as a sector manufacturing is 

declining. 

So we do have to think about this, because if manufacturing as 

a sector is declining, it means it is like a game of musical chairs 

where they keep pulling out some of the chairs, but we are still 

going to have a whole bunch of new workers going into that field. 

And I think that that highlights the need for us to provide training 

that is adaptable and movable and is general enough that students 

or graduates, workers are able to move to other sectors if they find 

themselves short of one of those seats when they are working in 

a declining sector. 

The sectors that are growing are in the service sector. In general, 

the goods-producing sector is in decline, and manufacturing is part 

of that. And this is a longer run trend. And where we are seeing 

growth is education and health services and business and professional services. 

And that is some of the reason why you see these strong returns 

to college education, but it is also just a shift in global society 

where we think about where is the U.S. really strong? And we are 

really strong in services. We export a lot of business and professional services. And I think we will continue to see job growth in 

those areas, even though we are going to continue to see hiring in 

sectors that are not growing as quickly. 

Senator Peters. The other area that I find interesting, and we 

heard some comments earlier about employers having to do some 

training—and certainly, Mr. McLemore, you have talked about that 

as well—is that when I came out of college, I did go through a very 

extensive training program that the company provided for me. And 

yet we have seen what I think is a troubling trend that more and 

more employer-paid training is going down. It used to be, I think 

in 1996, about one in five companies—one in five employees that 

came in had some sort of employer training. Now, that number is 

extremely low and employers are just expecting folks to be trained 

when they walk in the door, instead of investing in their employees. That is not what it was like when I came out of college. 

Is that an accurate reflection? Are those numbers, indeed, accurate? You are shaking your head, Dr. Stevenson. 

Dr. Stevenson. Yes, that is accurate and, frankly, it is quite 

puzzling, because we see workers—we have seen a decline in mobility. So workers are spending more time with their employers, and 

yet their employers are investing less in them. And I don’t have a 

good explanation for why that is, but it is certainly what we are 

seeing. 

Senator Peters. So you are seeing less employer investment in 

employees, and you are seeing wages that are not going up, even 

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though there are shortages. That doesn’t seem to comport with 

classical economics, does it? 

Dr. Stevenson. It does not. 

Senator Peters. Anybody else have a comment on why is there 

disconnect? There are shortages of skills. Employers are not investing in skills, and they are not paying more to attract folks to come 

into their businesses. Any other ideas? 

Dr. Harrison. 

Dr. Harrison. Well, the only thing I would add to that is we 

work with a lot of small businesses who don’t necessarily have the 

means to train their employees in the way that you are talking 

about, or employees are true multitaskers. So what we are working 

on with our chamber of commerce and others is to figure out ways 

to pool that so that that becomes a more collective approach, so 

that the employer is benefiting, but we are also able to really build 

the skill set of our region. 

Senator Peters. Let me add in the remaining time, since it is 

getting low here. One area that does train folks are labor unions, 

particularly in the building trades. They have very extensive apprenticeship programs. I have toured many of them in Michigan. 

Complete training. Students can come in, get basically free training, and get a great job afterwards. And yet we have seen a declining number of union jobs. 

Is that related to—Dr. Stevenson, you are shaking your head 

again as well. With declining labor and apprenticeship programs, 

to me that is a significant problem. 

Dr. Stevenson. That is a significant problem. With declining 

unionization, declining union investment in training, somebody has 

to pick up the slack. And that is either going to be businesses, and 

they haven’t been doing that, or it is going to be government. 

Senator Peters. Great. Thank you. 

Representative Tiberi. Thank you. 

Mr. Rooney, you are recognized for 5 minutes. 

Representative Rooney. I don’t have a clock, so let me know 

if I——I would like to ask Ms. Furchtgott-Roth a question, since 

you referenced the labor force participation rate. And I have been 

mulling over this study from Nick Eberstadt over at AEI, which is 

pretty chilling, and I would like to introduce it to the record, if I 

might. 

Representative Tiberi. Without objection. 

[The article titled ‘‘Our Miserable 21st Century’’ appears in the 

Submissions for the Record on page 78.] 

Representative Rooney. But he starts out by saying: By the 

criteria of adult work rates, employment conditions in America remain remarkably bleak. And he goes on to cite all kinds of horrendous things. But a couple of them that stood out in the nature of 

the argument or the comment that three 25- to 55-year-old males 

for each 25- to 55-year-old unemployed male are sitting out of the 

workforce and living off of benefits. That is 5 million people since 

2000. And half of these sitting out of the workplace, some 7 million 

take daily pain meds. Half are on Medicaid. And there are also 

some statistics from Alan Krueger at the Council of Economic Advisers, after you were there, about that a majority of these people 

were surveyed that they, quote, ‘‘don’t do civil society,’’ unquote. 

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So I am not an expert in this and you are, and I would like to 

ask you, what do you see we can do to kind of draw these people 

out and into the workforce using some of the tools that you describe in your testimony? 

Ms. Furchtgott-Roth. Well, it used to be that if you were an 

able-bodied adult, you couldn’t get benefits. You had to work. You 

couldn’t get health insurance; you had to work for that. And this 

has changed in the United States over the past 10 years, and the 

results are what we have seen, as Nick Eberstadt has described. 

There have been other people who have written on this. Casey 

Mulligan at the University of Chicago in his book ‘‘The Redistribution Recession,’’ and also his book on the effects of the Affordable 

Care Act on labor force participation. 

It is clear that if you get benefits without having to work, then 

fewer people are going to work. It is not something that an economist needs to do a study to analyze. Anyone can understand it, although many economists have measured this phenomenon. 

As well as the services, there are also a lot more job openings 

than hires in information, financial activities, finance and insurance, real estate rental. There are opportunities out there. I would 

say that employers don’t necessarily do formal training, but they 

do a lot of on-the-job training. When someone comes, they show 

them the ropes. Many employers are saying that they cannot find 

people who come and who want to do these jobs. 

There was an experiment of sorts in North Carolina when Governor McCrory in 2013 said, we can’t find enough welders. He cut 

back uninsurance benefits dramatically, to 19 weeks from about 63 

weeks. And all of a sudden a lot of jobs started getting created in 

North Carolina. Employment went up; unemployment went down. 

Representative Rooney. Thank you. 

Dr. Stevenson, maybe for you, but also it would be great for you 

too, is in the concept of the workforce participation and the testimony you put about there that business can do more. There has 

been a lot of reading. I just read this, but ‘‘Poor No More,’’ about 

the argument that instead of workforce training and preamble activities to work, you just get someone in there and put them to 

work. And between OJT and apprenticeship and things like that, 

they will gradually get with the program, and then maybe you supplant it later with some training to advance their skills. 

Can you comment on that? 

Dr. Stevenson. Are you asking if I think it is a good idea to put 

people into jobs before they are prepared so that they can learn on 

the job? 

Representative Rooney. That is what I am asking. 

Dr. Stevenson. You know, I think people have different ways of 

learning. There is obviously an importance of having a certain 

basic skill. And, you know, I advise my students that, to the extent 

they can, they should concentrate on building their skills, because 

they will be more productive once the skills are built. 

You know, I would like to emphasize that, you know, a century 

ago, countries mocked the United States for how much we were 

sending people to high school. They said that was a waste and we 

should put people into jobs and they should learn on the job. And 

what we did was set ourselves up for the most impressive growth 

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in the world last century, because we were willing to educate people. And I think we should be thinking about education today in 

the same way that we thought about it when we were expanding 

high school to the masses. 

We need to make sure that people have the opportunities to develop skills so that they can productively contribute. Lots of people 

learn really good by doing, and so—learn really well by doing, and 

I think that, you know, it is a great idea to build out those opportunities. But, you know, I wouldn’t say that we should just have students, or young people, dumping them into jobs without giving 

them adequate training. 

Ms. Furchtgott-Roth. On the other hand, the skills that you 

get when you graduate from high school now are not necessarily 

the skills that people had 50 years ago, if you look at the tests that 

people passed 50 or 60 years ago compared with the tests they pass 

now. There are some parts of the country where the graduation 

rate is only 55 percent, and we need to do more to let those students have alternatives, such as charter schools or school choice, 

allow the tax money to follow the child so that parents have the 

ability to choose a better school for them and so they do get those 

skills, because with the math skills and the reading skills, you can 

start in a lot of employers with a lot of jobs and work your way 

up. But without those basic math and reading and writing skills, 

it is difficult. 

Representative Rooney. Thank you. Good discussion. 

Representative Tiberi. Senator Hassan, you are recognized for 

5 minutes. 

Senator Hassan. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and Ranking 

Member Heinrich, for this hearing. And to the panel, thank you all 

for being here this morning. 

I know you have all been talking about the relatively low national unemployment rate, and it is clear that there is no easy solution to addressing a record high number of unfilled jobs reported 

from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics as 5.7 million openings in 

May. 

We all can agree we need more participation in the labor market 

and a more skilled workforce in order to be successful in changing 

our economy. As Governor of New Hampshire, now Senator, it is 

the number one thing I hear about from businesspeople and employers. 

One way to do this is to identify the individuals who have fallen 

out of the labor workforce that Congressman Rooney was just 

pointing to and to assist them with additional supports so that they 

can gain the skills necessary to fill vital job openings, because, 

again, I hear from employers that the people who do show up often 

don’t have the high-tech skills that we need. 

In New Hampshire, programs like Families in Transition and 

Goodwill have had success looking at the whole person and providing wraparound services to help people navigate homelessness, 

addressing their transportation needs, and securing childcare, in 

addition to job training. These programs in New Hampshire have 

demonstrated that at-risk individuals, when given the right supports, are capable of finding stable, good-paying employment, and 

working their way into the middle class. 

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So do you agree that these types of programs assist in expanding 

our labor markets? And do any of you have suggestions on how to 

scale and implement these types of services nationwide? 

And, Dr. Stevenson, I would like to start with you. 

Dr. Stevenson. Yes. So I strongly believe that these types of 

family support programs are essential to increasing the labor force. 

And to put some data on it, research has shown that female labor 

force participation in the United States would be 6 percentage 

points higher if we had the kind of access to childcare and paid 

family leave that other countries have. So we know that our lack 

of this type of support is actually holding back female labor force 

participation. We also know that the lack of support leads to longterm negative consequences as well. 

We are also learning more about people’s cognitive limitations. 

So that sounds almost like a difficult thing to talk about, but if you 

spend your time trying to figure out how you are going to put food 

on the table, you have got less left to give your employer. And so 

by making sure that we remove some of the burdens that people 

have, struggling to figure out how are they going to get their kids 

cared for while they are at work, what are they going to do when 

their kid is throwing up at school, when we reduce some of those 

cognitive burdens, they have more to give their employer, and that 

leads to higher productivity and better outcomes. 

And we know what needs to be done for that. We know that we 

need more government support for paid family leave and for 

childcare. 

Senator Hassan. Thank you. 

Any of the other panelists like to address that? 

Ms. Furchtgott-Roth. We already have a substantial deficit, 

and these government programs would come at an additional cost. 

One has to figure out what is worthwhile. And there are plenty 

of—— 

Senator Hassan. I also saw Dr. Harrison wanted to comment, 

so I want to make sure we get to him as well. 

But just to that point, in New Hampshire, because of our low unemployment rate, we actually had significant reserves in our welfare fund. We could use those reserves for some of these supports 

and wraparound services. And then we see things like people who 

get benefits from expanded Medicaid going into the workforce, because they weren’t healthy enough with chronic illness and kind of 

a revolving door into the emergency room to work. Now they are. 

So there is some good evidence that it could actually address some 

of our deficit issues as well. 

Ms. Furchtgott-Roth. Right, exactly. But if we look at Europe 

that has government-paid maternity care, frequently governmentpaid childcare, in many cases, their labor force participation rates 

are no higher than ours, plus their economic growth is much lower 

than ours in general, because these benefits kind of weigh down on 

their sectors. 

Senator Hassan. Well, and I don’t think anybody is suggesting 

exactly the same thing. 

Dr. Harrison. 

Dr. Harrison. I was just going to say, these issues really are all 

related, and we see the same thing happening at the college. As I 

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23 

said in my testimony, most college students are working. Many of 

them have family responsibilities. So the same kinds of challenges 

that exist in the workplace exist in terms of helping them advance 

their education. 

We need to remember that the education/employment pipeline 

really isn’t sequential anymore. It is happening concurrently. And 

it is left to the student in many cases to balance their job schedule, 

their family responsibilities, and their academic workload. And 

that is something that we work with every day. We try to help 

them manage it. 

Senator Hassan. Thank you. 

Mr. McLemore, anything to add? 

Mr. McLemore. No, Senator. I think it has been covered quite 

well by my fellow panelists. 

Senator Hassan. Thank you very much. 

And thank you, Mr. Chair. 

Representative Tiberi. Thank you. 

Mr. LaHood is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Representative LaHood. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I 

want to thank the witnesses for being here today, for your valuable 

testimony, and for the subject matter. 

The district I represent in central and west central Illinois is a 

fairly rural district, but a common complaint that I hear from employers, and I have some larger employers—Caterpillar is based 

there, State Farm Insurance, John Deere, ADM—that there are 

lots of jobs available, but no one can pass a drug test or a criminal 

background check, and I hear that constantly. 

And I know some States have been creative in what they have 

done to help in this area, but I wanted to ask Dr. Harrison or 

maybe Mr. McLemore, in your experience, have you seen where 

States have been creative or how they have helped to address this 

problem and any thoughts you can shed on that? 

Dr. Harrison. I don’t have a silver bullet solution to that. I 

mean, I think it is something in Ohio we are certainly struggling 

with. And the one thing I would say is we are trying to do it collectively in our State, and address both the individual that is involved, but also look at, you know, how we can prevent that down 

the road. 

As I mentioned earlier, we are trying to do it through education 

and awareness and those kinds of things. But it is an issue certainly Ohio is struggling with. 

Representative LaHood. Mr. McLemore. 

Mr. McLemore. Yes, I agree with Dr. Harrison. It is a collaborative approach. I don’t have specifics around how we would address it, other than I did mention earlier, Honda does support and 

participate in soft skills training at the high school level. One of 

the things that I believe we could do is to include that in our soft 

skills training with youth and talk about the negative impact of 

that on their lives as well as their careers, specifically in manufacturing or in any career that they pursue. But we haven’t implemented any specific models, other than involving soft skills training for youth. 

Ms. Furchtgott-Roth. We have had success in the past with 

massive reeducation campaigns. There are kids who will take 

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drugs, but they won’t throw trash on the ground. They have been 

brainwashed not to litter. They have been brainwashed not to 

smoke cigarettes. The rate of smoking has dramatically decreased, 

littering. And recycling, we brainwash them to know that you 

should throw your bottle in the right trash can. 

We need to have a similar effort with these opioids and with 

these drugs. We are not putting enough effort into it. We need to 

be starting at grade school, massive campaigns like we have. And 

I am sure that if we have done it with these other—we have seen 

results with these other things, we can also see results with drugs. 

Representative LaHood. And is it your thought that the statistics that show how many jobs are available, that that would change 

if this was implemented the right way? 

Ms. Furchtgott-Roth. I also think that we need to be carefully 

looking at the replacement ratio, as how much people gain when 

they are not working and dial that back. They are not eligible for 

all kinds of programs that they didn’t used to be eligible for 10 or 

15 years ago. It didn’t used to be that able-bodied adults were able 

to collect benefits. They had to work. Now they can collect benefits. 

So we are also seeing the results of these. 

Representative LaHood. Thank you. 

Another area that I wanted to cover is what I call kind of the 

brain drain from rural areas to urban areas. There seems to be a 

gravitation towards more of our cities and urban areas and young 

people that don’t necessarily want to come back to rural areas or 

smaller size cities and go to larger cities. 

Can you, Dr. Harrison or Mr. McLemore, comment on that? 

Mr. McLemore. Yes. Congressman, it is a challenge for Honda. 

Most of our manufacturing facilities are located in rural areas. In 

terms of finding talent, we are working very hard with the initiatives that we have put in place with local community, technical career centers, and high schools, to encourage young people to pursue 

these manufacturing opportunities. 

We have recently partnered with the Society of Manufacturing 

Engineers and are funding a manufacturing pathway at our Anna 

High School near our engine plant. In addition to that, we have 

mobile manufacturing labs, one of which I think Dr. Harrison is 

aware of, where we are offering training, both incumbent training 

as well as training in those regional and those rural areas. 

So for Honda, it is an important challenge and it is important 

that we find solutions for that. 

Dr. Harrison. We have seen both sides of that, where we do see 

exactly as you are describing, people moving from rural areas to 

urban areas, like Columbus. But I was in conversations just recently with employers and some of our economic development leaders looking at a heat map of where the jobs are and where the people are. And a lot of the jobs are clustered in the urban areas, and 

they can’t get people to relocate from some of the rural areas of our 

State. So the jobs aren’t always where the people are, and that is 

something that we continue to try to align. 

Representative LaHood. Thank you. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Representative Tiberi. Before I recognize Representative Maloney, the Senator and I were wondering if we could go one more 

LAP51NQ082 with DISTILLER

25 

round, the folks that are here, of questions, because we think this 

has been a very, very good—is that okay with the four of you? 

Thank you. 

Senator Maloney—Representative Maloney. I almost demoted 

you. 

Representative Maloney. Thank you for holding this hearing. 

And, Ms. Stevenson, I was just at a Janet Yellen hearing. I am 

a little late. So it is important. 

Labor force participation for women peaked in the 1990s, and 

has since declined. And according to a Brookings Institute study, 

28 percent of that decline can be attributed to the lack of family 

friendly work policies. And how would a Federal paid family leave 

policy affect vacancies in the labor force and the speed with which 

they would be filled? 

Ms. Furchtgott-Roth. Well, I think, first of all, there are different ways to have family leave policies, but I think any mandatory family leave policy would result in a declining hiring of women 

of childbearing age, because women of childbearing age would come 

with a certain cost to them. So if an employer had to choose a 

qualified man and a qualified woman, the qualified woman would 

lose out. I would say that mandatory paid family leave policies are 

not a good idea to promote labor force participation. 

Representative Maloney. And your comment, Ms. Stevenson? 

Dr. Stevenson. So I would disagree with that, respectfully. I do 

think that paid family leave policies promote greater attachment of 

women to the labor force, and that greater attachment leads to 

greater wage growth, which encourages overall participation. 

I have recently been part of a bipartisan commission with AEI 

and Brookings to put together a paid family leave proposal. And we 

did tackle this issue of wanting to ensure that there was as little 

discrimination as possible or employers attempting to opt out. And 

so we do recommend that paid family leave be available to both 

men and women. 

And that is not just for the issue of discrimination, but because 

that is actually what people want. Surveys show very clearly that 

young men today want to be able to take time to take care of their 

kids. They want to be fully engaged parents. And that means they 

need to be able to take a day off when their kid is sick, or they 

want to be able to take time off when they have a newborn child 

into the home. 

And so what we see is that when we have paid family leave policies, if we had a nationwide paid family leave policy, I believe that 

women would have greater labor force participation. They would 

find it easier to stay attached to the labor market. 

I do also want to add that while we have seen labor force participation of women peak in the 1990s, we have seen their contributions continue to grow in other ways. And so that illustrates that 

it is not just about—paid family leave isn’t just about trying to get 

women to participate more in the labor force, but making sure we 

are taking advantage of our most skilled workers. 

Women are increasingly the most college-educated workers. They 

increasingly have the same level of job experience as their male colleagues. And these high-skilled, highly experienced workers find 

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themselves in a bind when they have young children and are unable to access paid leave policies. 

And so overall, I think the economy would benefit from something that neutralized the issue of paid leave so that employers 

weren’t wrestling with whether that was a benefit they wanted to 

offer, but something that everybody had equal access to. 

Representative Maloney. Well, President Trump has shown 

support with his daughter for paid leave for the birth of a child. 

And research from the United Nations shows that America is 

among two countries in the whole world that does not have a policy 

for paid leave for the birth of a child. We are in the same company 

with Papua New Guinea. 

So this seems to have more support. A bill passed the House of 

Representatives twice, did not pass the Senate. 

What are your comments on paid leave for the birth of a child? 

Dr. Stevenson. I think the good thing about coming last is we 

have lots and lots of evidence that it works around the rest of the 

world. And I have confidence that the United States is a strong 

economy that can succeed and do even better when we move to the 

types of policies that every other country besides Papua New Guinea have. 

Representative Maloney. And, Ms. Furchtgott-Roth. 

Ms. Furchtgott-Roth. Many employers have their own paid 

family leave policies, and this is something that should be worked 

out between the employer and employees on a case-by-case basis. 

There are some companies in the Washington area that provide 5 

months of paid maternity leave for a birth of a child, and there are 

others that don’t provide any. 

But it basically raises the costs of employment. We have already 

been decrying the lack of job opportunities. Any mandated costs on 

employers increase the move to technology, the substitution of technology for workers, and would result in lower employment rather 

than higher employment. 

Representative Maloney. Dr. Harrison, in your written testimony, you were talking about career education and hooking up 

businesses with schools and training young people. I have a very 

successful program near my district, right on the border, between 

IBM and a high school, where literally every child is trained for a 

job in IBM. They have partnered with them. They then help them 

achieve a college education, and then they move them directly into 

their jobs. And it is fantastic. Every child in that school gets a job 

when they graduate. 

And do you see this moving forward with businesses, you know, 

partnering with public education to train for the specific jobs they 

need? You keep reading that certain industries can’t find the workers they need. Why in the world aren’t they partnering and working with our schools to train them with exactly the skill sets that 

they need? 

Representative Tiberi. And before you answer, I just want to 

remind the gentlelady that her time has expired. But go ahead and 

answer. 

Representative Maloney. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, 

but this is an important question. When you see something sucLAP51NQ082 with DISTILLER

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ceeding, you want to try to figure out how you can make it happen 

again. 

Dr. Harrison. I will be brief. I believe that is the P–TECH program. 

Representative Maloney. Yes, that is it. That is exactly in 

Brooklyn. 

Dr. Harrison. And in central Ohio, we have a version of that 

replicated in many industries. You weren’t here earlier, but our 

partnership with Honda of America is a great example of that. We 

have many other companies, American Electric Power, JPMorgan 

Chase, others, who are working to do the same kind of thing. It is 

not as specific yet as what IBM is doing, except with regard to 

what we are doing in manufacturing, but there is really kind of a 

groundswell of work in information technology, because a lot of the 

larger companies in central Ohio share that as an acute need. So 

it is something we are working collaboratively on with K–12, community college, and our university partners. 

Representative Maloney. Thank you. My time has expired. 

Representative Tiberi. Mr. Beyer, you are recognized for 5 

minutes. 

Representative Beyer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, very much. 

And thank you all very much for being here. 

And, Ms. Furchtgott-Roth, I would like to immediately push back as a business owner. I have 380 employees, $200 million a year, 

and we instituted paid maternity leave 6 weeks about 4 years ago. 

And we have had no tendency to try to replace these people with 

technology. In fact, it has been an extraordinary recruiting tool for 

us to bring people in. 

We find that it is so hard to attract women to a business where 

women are very successful that this can be a positive thing rather 

than a negative thing. I don’t see—in fact, there are lots of studies 

that show, especially within the Federal Government, the legislation that Representative Maloney has offered again and again, that 

it actually saves the Federal Government money to do maternity 

leave rather than cost. You don’t have to train new people. You 

don’t have to hire new people. 

Ms. Furchtgott-Roth. Precisely. And as you know, employers 

are very smart. They can work this out on their own. The company 

that I mentioned that offers 5 months’ paid maternity leave also 

has trouble attracting women, and this is a recruitment tool. 

I am just saying that the Federal Government does not have to 

do a mandate. This is being increasingly worked out on an employer-by-employer basis, as there is increasing shortage of women 

and companies want to recruit them. 

Representative Beyer. But it may well be part of the fundamental problem about why we have this so-called skills gap. 

You know, when I talk to people in the business community, as 

I do all the time, you hear this we just can’t find the qualified people again and again. But this issue has been around a long, long 

time, not just since the Great Recession. And there is lots of research out there. In fact, I have got a passel full of articles here. 

But people from like Boston Consulting Group, Andrew Weaver, 

Paul Otterman, they show that really there is little evidence of a 

meaningful and persistent skills gap, that there are many other 

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28 

things part of it, including wage stagnation and including that one 

of the greatest obstacles may be employers’ insistence on prior 

work experience in the same industry to bring them in. 

So, Mr. McLemore, as a car dealer—and I would love a Honda 

franchise, by the way—you know, we are very familiar of how 

closely we have worked together with our manufacturing to provide 

training. What is your perspective on this skills gap and the search 

for skilled employees? 

Mr. McLemore. Well, thank you for that question. I think, as 

you mentioned, there are many reasons why we have this challenge. And I think what I found in our partnership with Columbus 

State and the partnership with our other educational institutions 

is it is really around the understanding that these opportunities 

exist, and then what are the pathways in which they can get the 

skills and be trained to be prepared for these roles. 

It is just amazing to me how few individuals understand what 

the opportunity looks like and what it feels like. And then on top 

of that, how do they enter that workforce and what are the skills 

that are even required? 

I know the challenge for Dr. Harrison and other community colleges regarding programs that they can provide is to pull people 

into those programs. So what they have done is they have asked 

employers to come and sell those programs by marketing the careers which they would get as a result of that education. I think 

the key is those partnerships and that collaboration. Without that, 

people are not going to seek that training, I don’t believe, wholesale 

on their own. Just not enough people are going to do that. 

So I think that is a big challenge for us, creating what I call the 

line of sight for those individuals that are either displaced or are 

not currently seeking that pathway. 

Representative Beyer. Thank you very much. 

Dr. Stevenson, there has been a lot of discussion about the impact of social benefit programs on labor rate participation. We hear 

this all the time in rural Virginia, that, you know, with SSDI and 

everything, why do people need to go to work? 

What is your perspective? Are social support programs our biggest labor participation problem? 

Dr. Stevenson. I do not believe so. If you compare what we have 

to other countries, we do not have a very robust safety net. If you 

look at growth in SSDI, the primary drivers of growth are that 

there are more people who qualify for SSDI. Because of women’s 

increased labor force attachment, there are more women who qualify. And then you have an aging workforce, which means that people are getting to that time in their life where they are more likely 

to develop the kinds of problems that would lead them to be on 

SSDI. 

I do believe that it would be useful for us to do a better job of 

helping people who are able to get back to work get back to work. 

And there are certainly lots of demonstration projects out there to 

try to figure out how to do that. 

If you look overall at our benefit structure, it is not benefits that 

are keeping people out of work. And we have seen—I should say, 

you know, we did see unemployment insurance ramp up when we 

had unemployment rates of 10 percent, but we have seen unemLAP51NQ082 with DISTILLER

29 

ployment insurance come back down as unemployment has recovered. And the decline in unemployment surpassed every forecaster’s expectation, despite the fact that we had such robust levels 

of unemployment insurance. 

Representative Beyer. Thank you. 

Representative Tiberi. Thank you. Good questions. 

We are going to go for a second round here. And one of the questions the gentleman from Virginia asked you, Mr. McLemore, kind 

of piqued a thought in my mind. Let me give you a hypothetical. 

This could apply to any State, but let’s do it from an Ohio perspective. And, Dr. Harrison, please share your thoughts as well. 

Let’s assume you had a large international manufacturing CEO, 

to my left. He is the CEO of a large manufacturer. He wants to 

put a facility, a manufacturing facility, let’s say in the Midwest. 

And so he comes to Ohio, and the concern he has is can I get 

enough people to work. 

Senator Heinrich. I think I might want to put it in Albuquerque. But we can discuss that later. 

Representative Tiberi. Well, you might, you might. But we 

don’t have anybody from Albuquerque on the panel to answer the 

question, so we will just use Ohio. But it could be Albuquerque. It 

could be a manufacturer in Albuquerque and a community college 

president in Albuquerque. And his question to you would be, from 

a community college president’s perspective and from a manufacturer’s perspective who has been around, in your case, 30 years, 

what do I do to get 5,000 workers employed in your region? Tell 

me, should I be concerned and look to Michigan, New Mexico, New 

Hampshire? How would you answer that question? 

Dr. Harrison. I will start this time. I think my first question to 

him would be, how creative are you willing to be? Because we in 

Ohio, central Ohio, we have got the building blocks that would be 

able to get 5,000 people ready to go for her or his business. It 

would take a collaborative effort. It would take a community effort. 

But I say all the time I have got 26,000 students at Columbus 

State, they are all looking for a job or for a better job. There is a 

way, there is a pathway to make that happen with this employer. 

What we are seeing is all employers are struggling with this. 

Those who are creative in their HR practices are really starting to 

turn it into a competitive advantage, and the gentleman to my left 

I think can speak to that. 

There wasn’t a career path for people with associate degrees at 

Honda 4 years ago. And now we are filling rooms with information 

sessions and those kinds of things, and that is being noticed by employers from other industries. So these creative, inclusive business 

practices, from an HR standpoint, is what we are seeing leading 

employers really start to pay attention to. 

Mr. McLemore. So Dr. Harrison nailed it, as I thought he 

would. It is a question of how much does that CEO and that company want to engage in that collaborative effort within that State. 

So for Ohio, just speaking from our perspective, currently with 

our partnership with Columbus State, but in addition to that, 

JobsOhio, so local and State government, there is a lot of momentum that is happening around discussions like what we are having 

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30 

stand how to make that happen quickly, they have to be willing to 

engage directly, because I think the infrastructure is there for 

Ohio. 

So it is understanding what infrastructure exists, whether that 

is through data, but that partnership and a willingness to come to 

the table and be innovative and speak frankly about what their 

needs are, and then how can a community college accommodate 

those needs. 

Ms. Furchtgott-Roth. You also find that people move. So when 

the Boeing plant was opened in South Carolina, people were moving to north Charleston to take those jobs. North Dakota, when 

there was the oil boom, people were moving to North Dakota. Stephen Moore has written a series of books called ‘‘Rich States, Poor 

States’’ documenting this movement from States that don’t have 

jobs to States that do have jobs. 

Mr. McLemore. Mr. Chairman, could I add something to that? 

So a thought came to mind. 

One of the things that we did with Columbus State is we conducted a specific workforce analysis of the specific role that we 

were struggling to fill internally. And what we did is we turned the 

results of that over to Columbus State so that they could accurately 

align their curriculum to the specific needs that we had. 

So in addition to understanding and being collaborative, I think 

for the company, it would be in their best interest to speak directly 

about what skills they are looking for and what their needs look 

like, and how can the community college and other educational institutions provide students that have those skills. 

Dr. Harrison. Mr. Chairman, if I may, it really is a partnership 

and a kind of collaboration that Scot is talking about. I was in a 

meeting not unlike this or a conversation not unlike this with chief 

HR people from our region from a lot of different industries recently, and I was just asking them about their employment practices. And the conversation went something like, well, we go to the, 

you know, our local university and we look for accounting majors 

with a 3.4 GPA or above. And oh, by the way, we are trying to diversify our workforce. And we all kind of laughed. I am like, well, 

how is that working for you? And then I said, you know, my student served 6 years in the Air Force, it has taken him 4 years to 

earn a 2-year degree because he is working and supporting his 

family. He is never leaving Columbus, and he is going to work hard 

for you for the next 30 years. I had three of them come up to me 

after the meeting and say, I want the Air Force guy, but my current HR practices wouldn’t allow me to hire him. He wouldn’t make 

it through the system. 

So, again, they are starting to recognize—but, again, progressive 

companies are starting to recognize that that is an issue and they 

are making those changes. 

Representative Tiberi. One final—go ahead. No, no, please, because this is a little bit off. Go ahead. 

Senator Heinrich. So I find that fascinating and heartening, 

and I want to go back just real quickly to something we touched 

on earlier, but, frankly, I didn’t feel like we heard a lot of solutions 

to, and that is that geographic mismatch between urban and rural 

areas. 

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And I don’t believe that we can just say the solution is going to 

be everybody is going to move to an urban area. We need a vibrant 

rural small town economy in this country and one that is not purely based on low-wage service-sector jobs. So what should we be 

thinking about in terms of how we can invest in that population, 

in their education, and in business development opportunities to 

make sure that the solution is not just, okay, you are going to 

chase the job? That pull is always going to be there for people to 

move to places where jobs are created, but we can’t afford to turn 

our back on rural America. We need to invest in jobs there. 

Dr. Harrison. My light is on so I will go. 

Senator Heinrich. You drew the short straw, Dr. Harrison. 

Dr. Harrison. Well, we face this in Ohio, because we have, you 

know, very successful and growing urban populations and we have 

got large rural areas. And one of the things that we are working 

with when we think about statewide strategy is, in a technologically driven workforce, how distributed can the workforce be? 

And we do believe that there are technology-enabled jobs with 

large and small companies where people don’t have to leave their 

community, they may not have to leave their home. So things like 

broadband access and those kinds of things to rural areas has become really important, but also I think just an understanding of 

the possible. Because in so many rural areas in Ohio, the aspiration is to be the manager of McDonald’s, and there is nothing 

wrong with that, but that is all they see. Scot talks about the line 

of sight. 

So the ability to work with large technology companies and help 

people understand that these are within their reach. There are 

many tens of thousands of jobs that are unfilled in Ohio. These are 

the steps to get there. It may not even require a bachelor’s degree 

or even associate degree. A technical certificate can get you started. 

And with the right employer, you may not have to even leave—— 

Senator Heinrich. I liked your example of the Air Force veteran, in part, because I think that line of sight needs to go in both 

directions. So people need to know what is possible in places where 

those jobs may not be there today, but they could be, and then employers also need to understand the inherent advantages that you 

may acquire with a workforce in a rural area that has an incredible 

loyalty to the business itself and an investment in community that 

you might not find in other places. 

Representative Tiberi. You had a thought there. 

Mr. McLemore. No. I am just realizing I misunderstood Congressman LaHood’s question, I think. 

So our challenge is really, as the demographics, as it was stated, 

we are losing people in rural areas populationwise to urban areas. 

For Honda, we are focusing on our 15-county radius. As I mentioned before, our facilities are located in rural communities. Our 

focus is there. However, it includes Franklin County and other 

urban areas in which, actually, I live. 

So I am familiar with the challenges of getting people that live 

in urban areas out to a Marysville, Ohio. Even though I have been 

doing it for 30 years and I think it is great, it is an awareness of 

those opportunities out there. But we are continuing to focus on 

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our local communities, whether they be rural or whether they be 

urban. 

Representative Tiberi. Senator Hassan. 

Senator Hassan. Thank you. And this has really been a great 

discussion, and I greatly appreciate it. 

You know, one of the things that some businesses in New Hampshire have been doing to this whole issue of line of sight is not only 

working to help young people understand the career pathway, and 

we have a whole career pathway initiative in our public school systems with our community college systems right now, but we also 

see companies bringing in guidance counselors and parents, especially around advanced manufacturing, because so many parents 

think that manufacturing is something that will injure your child 

in a dirty environment instead of the high-tech effort that it now 

is. 

But I also just wanted to touch on a couple of the efforts that 

the Federal Government has invested in to help with the kind of 

partnerships that Dr. Harrison and Mr. McLemore, you have been 

talking about so well this morning. 

One of them came with the passage of the Workforce Innovation 

and Opportunity Act in 2014, which was integral in helping States 

expand sector partnerships, to ensure workforce training is coordinated and responsive truly to the employer’s need. And they are 

led by industry and a makeup of different stakeholder groups. It 

is a sector partnership model. And are you familiar with it? Do you 

think it is something that if we expand it, it would be helpful in 

developing the kind of workforce we need? 

Dr. Harrison. In central Ohio, we really do focus on a sector 

strategy approach, and a lot of that is a cascade from our statewide 

economic development plan. And the answer is yes, we see it working really well. 

We also see real advantages—and Scot talks a lot about this in 

our local groups—of having cross-sector—— 

Senator Hassan. Right. 

Dr. Harrison [continuing]. Conversations as well, because, as I 

said before, the model that Honda has put in place with their coop program, we have got companies from other industries that are 

trying to replicate. So I think both are important. 

Senator Hassan. Yeah, because the other program that has 

been very important in New Hampshire is our TAACCCT grant 

program, and I think you referenced a similar program. Our Great 

Bay Community College started an Advanced Technology & Academic Center largely through the use of a TAACCCT grant that 

brought an additional $4 million in State funds, and then participation and partnerships of companies all across the region. So we 

now have more than 100 partners in industry as well as State and 

Federal agencies. And the Center is helping to create a program 

that gives students advanced manufacturing skills. 

And, again, it seems to me that you are both saying, strategically 

done with good partnerships so that the educators understand the 

needs of the actual industry and a variety of industries, they can 

really make a difference. Is that a fair assessment? 

Dr. Harrison. Those kinds of Federal investments can truly be 

catalytic. We were involved in a TAACCCT grant in logistics that 

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included colleges from eight States. And the ability to really bring 

those kinds of things to scale and the Federal investment gets people to the table and really brings employers, K–12, and the community college kind of run in the same direction and really trying to 

move the needle forward. 

Senator Hassan. The last question I have about this issue is 

just—strikes me, because it is something that one of our major employers, a large hospital in the Seacoast of New Hampshire took 

on, but it is understanding that, as we work with a labor pool that 

may have had low participation rates or lack of education or training, often these folks are working at entry-level jobs. And the training programs that have traditionally been offered even through 

community colleges have been, you know, 6 months, a year, 2 

years. 

What this healthcare organization decided to do was help train 

people up in what is normally a 2-year curriculum in kind of a series of boot camps over weekends, so that you are still giving people the opportunity, to that Air Force vet’s example, of working and 

supporting their families. But often, for single parents in particular, the notion that they could just give up their work for 6 

months or a year to get highly trained is just not reasonable. 

So are you seeing kind of different ways of developing the curriculum and the schedule for students so that they can do both of 

these things? 

Dr. Harrison. In more and more of our programs, our curriculum design is based on stackable certificates so that students 

are able to earn a workforce-based credential with market value 

before earning the associate degree, but what they have earned 

there counts fully towards their ultimate earning of the associate 

degree, because most students are working while they are going to 

school. 

I do want to follow up, if I may, on the Federal investment idea. 

And, Mr. Chairman, you will be very familiar with this. The city 

of Columbus competed against 77 other cities last year with the 

U.S. Department of Transportation grant called Smart Cities Challenge. A similar kind of program in this workforce area could truly 

be catalytic. And if you look at how that has brought the community together. It was a $40 million investment from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Central Ohio has now put in over $500 

million in private and local funding to really make that a benchmark that we think will move the needle not just for central Ohio 

but for our Nation. 

The same kind of model could work in this workforce misalignment area when you are getting the right people at the table. And, 

again, Federal funding can really help move that along. 

Senator Hassan. Well, thank you. 

And thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Representative Tiberi. A perfect segue. A final question, Dr. 

Harrison, because you mentioned this in your testimony. 

Anecdotally, I have heard in my district, a person in a rural area, 

who has a job in Columbus downtown, but has a beat-up car. Car 

breaks down, now they can’t get to work, no bus line; opposite to, 

you have a person who lives in the urban part of Columbus, job is 

in Dublin, a suburb, or Amazon on the east side, no bus line. How 

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does that Smart Cities Challenge, in your mind, fix that, or does 

it? 

Dr. Harrison. Well, we are hoping it does, because, first of all, 

our public transportation, COTA, is a key part of that, and it 

wasn’t necessarily part of Smart Cities, but it was part of another 

Department of Transportation grant where we have got a rapid 

transit line that now comes down Cleveland Avenue, where the 

buses signal the traffic signals so that there are fewer lights that 

they have to stop at. And the hub of that is right in front of our 

bookstore at the college, which is kind of the entry to the city. 

So what that will do, we hope, is promote more public transportation, because now, instead of sitting on a bus for 45 minutes or 

an hour one way, when you have got children or a job you have 

got to get to, it makes it much more efficient. We also think that 

the Smart Cities work specifically should be able to contribute to 

a much more robust ride-sharing operation. 

If you look at the traffic that comes into our campus every day, 

it is full of cars with only a driver, and they are following each 

other down 670 or 71 or Cleveland Avenue, and the ability to really 

create a smarter infrastructure around those connections I think 

will be important. If you layer on then an electric or autonomous 

vehicle that is part of that, it really can change the dynamics of 

the region. 

Representative Tiberi. Wow, this has been fascinating. I hope 

you four have thought so as well. I think the committee here has 

gotten a lot out of this. 

So I appreciate your time today. Thank you for making yourself 

available. We like to remind the witnesses that the record will be 

open for 5 business days for any member that would like to submit 

questions for the record. Thank you all so much. 

This hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 11:46 a.m., the committee was adjourned.] 

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SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD 

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PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. PATRICK J. TIBERI, CHAIRMAN, JOINT ECONOMIC

COMMITTEE

Good morning and welcome to the Joint Economic Committee’s hearing on job vacancies and the labor market. I want to especially welcome our Ranking Member 

Senator Heinrich, as well as the other Members of this Committee who have expressed a keen interest in exploring this important economic topic. 

On the surface, low unemployment and a large number of vacancies suggest that 

the labor market is tightening. However, wage growth has been slow and many potential workers remain on the sidelines. Something is not yet right with the U.S. 

labor market. 

I’ve heard from many employers, in Ohio and around the country, that they are 

struggling to fill good-paying job vacancies. These employers tell me about people 

not being able to pass a drug test, and people not having the skillset to qualify. 

I believe there are causes on the demand side as well as the supply side of the 

labor market, and among both are economic policies by the Obama administration 

that weakened the recovery of business investment, labor productivity, and work incentives after the last recession. 

Business investment and productivity must rise faster for wages to rise faster, 

and more people must join the workforce to raise economic growth. 

The U.S. population is still growing. Since just prior to the recession, the population has increased by 22 million people of working age, yet the labor force has increased by only 6 million people. The baby boom generation is moving into retirement, but people in their prime working years also are participating less in the 

labor force than before the recession. 

In addition to the work Congress and the Administration are doing to reform 

taxes, improve regulation, and alleviate unnecessary government mandates, we also 

must focus attention on improving the institutions that prepare our workforce for 

new challenges. 

That is why I have invited expert witnesses to this hearing who can provide perspectives from the economist’s, educator’s, and employer’s point of view. 

We must explore the value to the economy and individuals of sending ever more 

people to college, how well high schools position graduates for the workplace, how 

employer requirements inform the educational system, and what employers are contributing to the skill development of current and prospective employees. 

In the United States, we must find better ways to equip young people and workers of all ages with marketable skills and the ability to adapt to changing market 

demands as they progress through their careers. I look forward to learning from the 

insights of our expert panel today on how to improve worker proficiency, flexibility, 

and motivation. 

Faster economic growth and rising living standards for American families will result from getting this right. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MARTIN HEINRICH, RANKING DEMOCRAT, JOINT

ECONOMIC COMMITTEE

Thank you, Chairman Tiberi, and thank you to our panel for being here today. 

The employment picture is brighter than it was eight years ago, but not as bright 

as we want or need. 

Too many Americans can’t find a job, or are in jobs that pay wages too low to 

achieve financial security. 

Employers complain they can’t find candidates with the right skills to grow their 

business. 

And some parts of the country—for example, many rural areas—have largely been 

left out and need basic investment. 

Today, we are focusing on one way to create opportunities for more Americans— 

namely, by investing in education and training options. 

Some industries in some regions of the country face a mismatch between the skills 

employers need and the skills workers have. 

Addressing this is important, but that alone won’t adequately improve the economy or strengthen financial security for families and communities. 

To do that, Congress must work with State and local leaders to take an all-ofthe-above approach that supports workers and businesses. 

In the 21st Century economy, college is increasingly important for financial security. 

Congress has a significant role to play in making sure students are not priced out 

of the future they want and are ready to work for. Access to an affordable college 

degree must be available to every student. 

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We also know that a college degree is not and should not be the only path to a 

bright future. 

Career and technical education, apprenticeships and other training programs lead 

to good-paying jobs. 

Here, community colleges have an important role to play because they understand 

the needs of local employers, are committed to creating opportunities for their students, and can design programs and courses that are responsive to employers’ current and future needs. 

TechHire Albuquerque launched earlier this year in New Mexico. 

Using a Federal grant program, Central New Mexico Community College 

partnered with employers and State agencies to create an IT pipeline—by providing 

training, work experience, and job placement. 

Graduates learn new computer coding skills, earn industry-recognized credentials, 

and are able to put those skills to use with area employers. 

Employers are able to fill open positions with candidates with proven skills. 

That’s the type of innovation and creative problem-solving Congress should be 

promoting. 

It’s also critical that we target training at high-growth sectors of the economy. 

That’s what Central New Mexico Community College has done with its STEMulus 

center, offering coding bootcamps and new classes in Java, Android and Salesforce. 

This week, Senator Gardner and I introduced the CHANCE in Tech Act, which 

encourages educators and businesses to start apprenticeship programs for the tech 

sector. This will connect more Americans to a growing sector where jobs are opening 

up every day. 

In an all-of-the-above approach, we must recognize that investing in the workforce 

starts well before college or even high school. It starts by investing in proven programs that set children up for success later in life. 

This is why access to universal pre-K is so important and why I am a strong advocate of the two-generation approach, which provides quality early education for children while providing workforce training for parents. 

We’ve seen this work in New Mexico. The United Way’s Early Learning Center 

in Santa Fe offers year-round, full-day services for children alongside technology, 

employment and social service assistance for parents. 

For workers to remain competitive in the future economy, learning and skills development must continue over a lifetime. 

Companies must get back in the business of investing in their workers. Not just 

because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s the prosperous thing to do for 

businesses and workers alike. 

There is much work for us do here. For the Nation to be competitive in the future 

economy, we must find new solutions. 

I look forward to hearing from our witnesses. 

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PREPARED STATEMENT OF SCOT MCLEMORE, MANAGER, TALENT ACQUISITION, HONDA

NORTH AMERICA, INC. 

Thank you Chairman Tiberi, Ranking Member Heinrich and the members of the 

committee for hosting this hearing on the critical issue of workforce participation 

and workforce development. This is a topic vital to the United States economy and 

to companies like Honda who have significant domestic manufacturing operations. 

My name is Scot McLemore and I serve as manager of Talent Acquisition at 

Honda North America. In my role at Honda, I work to develop strategies to help 

address workforce challenges. It is my honor to be here today to share some of those 

initiatives with you and discuss ways that industry and government can partner to 

activate the full potential of the domestic manufacturing sector. Honda has more 

than 70 facilities in the United States, including 12 manufacturing plants that 

produce a wide range of products; including cars, trucks, light business jets, power 

equipment and power sports products. More than 73 percent of Honda’s 30,000 U.S. 

associates work in manufacturing roles. In addition to our direct employment, 

Honda works with more than 600 U.S. suppliers who employ tens of thousands of 

workers nationwide. 

I. OVERVIEW

Manufacturing jobs are high-paying jobs, with good benefits, which should be 

highly attractive in our current economic climate. Unfortunately, however, there is 

a shortage of young people entering the manufacturing workforce, and that alone 

threatens the foundation of American industry. According to a 2015 Deloitte study 

completed in conjunction with the Manufacturing Institute, nearly 3.4 million manufacturing jobs will need to be filled over the next decade; 2.7 million of those jobs 

will be due to retirement and another 700,000 will be due to new job creation. Of 

those 3.4 million jobs, two million are expected to go unfilled because of a lack of 

interest in manufacturing or simply because prospective employees lack the essential skills needed to be successful in a manufacturing role. 

This situation presents a great opportunity for our country, but without immediate action, the number of unfilled jobs will only continue to grow. The same 

Deloitte study found that only 37 percent of parents would recommend a manufacturing career to their children. Despite the reality that the average manufacturing 

employee earns roughly $15,000 more than the average employee does across all 

other sectors, the industry has long been stigmatized by the outdated visions of the 

factory floor of yesteryear. 

Even when prospective employees understand the opportunity of a career in manufacturing, too often they lack the skills to succeed in modern industry. Specifically, 

these individuals often do not possess the problem solving ability, technical training, 

computer knowledge, or math skills needed to compete in the 21st century workforce. Modern manufacturing equipment and processes involve an integration of 

pneumatic, hydraulic, mechanical, electronic and computer-networked components. 

Employees must have the ability to understand these systems and how they work 

together to be able to install, troubleshoot and modify to maintain daily operations 

within a facility. 

Honda’s success is reliant on our ability to hire and develop talent to build the 

high-quality products that bring our customers joy. While it is true Honda has a 

stake in more people entering manufacturing positions, we want to implement programs that create interest and opportunities for all companies and to help advance 

the entire U.S. manufacturing economy. 

II. WHAT HONDA IS DOING TO ENCOURAGE INTEREST/ADDRESS SKILLS GAP

As we have developed our workforce education and training programs, Honda has 

taken an intentional approach that establishes a pathway for students from middle 

to post-secondary education so that they may have a successful career within the 

manufacturing sector, which I will outline today. Our programs reflect our desire 

to build enthusiasm and passion for individuals who pursue careers in manufacturing, which we believe can be achieved through innovative instruction and continued skills support. 

A. Early Engagement 

Honda believes that the first step in technical workforce development is to create 

excitement for manufacturing jobs through enthusiastic engagement with students, 

parents and educators. One way we are working to engage students early in their 

academic career is with the deployment of an educational video game for middle 

school aged children. Through a partnership with an Ohio-based company called 

EdHeads, we have developed a unique virtual experience designed for classroom 

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use. The game teaches logic, critical thinking and takes students right to the engine 

manufacturing line where they apply math and problem solving skills to find answers to real world problems. This free resource is available at http://edheads.org/ 

page/manufacturing1. I encourage you to visit the site and share this resource with 

any of your constituents who may be interested. 

However, we also recognize that creating interest comes down to providing handson opportunities for students to experience manufacturing in real life. To help facilitate this learning, Honda has partnered with several businesses and academic institutions to create mobile labs that feature robotics and other technologies that help 

middle school students develop critical thinking skills and gain an understanding 

of modern manufacturing. The fact that these labs are mobile allows them to travel 

to rural areas that may be underserved by most traditional workforce development 

programs. By expanding the number of students who have early access to this technology, Honda hopes to grow the base of students who become interested in manufacturing and become future manufacturing employees. 

In addition, Honda has partnered with TechCorps, a nonprofit organization focused on developing technology-related skills in K–12 students, to create summer 

programs geared toward middle school students in Ohio. Interested students can attend full-day, week-long summer camps where they are submerged into STEM subject matters, including computer programming, web development and app development. These summer camps are designed so students emerge with knowledge, concepts and skills that are useful in today’s classroom and tomorrow’s workplace. 

B. Skills Gap/Technical Education 

As Honda recruits technical talent, we experience the challenge of identifying individuals who possess the required skills to maintain modern manufacturing equipment. Many young people have not experienced learning beyond a textbook or computer to really understand how things work. We recognize there must be a bridge 

formed between creating interest in manufacturing and preparing people to use analytical skills to effectively interact with today’s manufacturing equipment. Through 

our workforce development initiatives, Honda has helped to create that bridge from 

middle school robotics clubs to high school ‘‘hands-on’’ learning using classroom 

equipment which operates similar to the equipment found on today’s manufacturing 

floor to providing technical training through work study and internship programs 

at community colleges. 

At the high school level, Honda is a strong supporter of the Marysville Early College STEM High School. This school was developed as a partnership between 

Honda, the Marysville School District, Columbus State Community College, the 

Ohio Hi Point Career Center, and the Union County Chamber of Commerce. Early 

college high school is a unique approach to education, based on the principle that 

academic rigor combined with the opportunity to save time and money are powerful 

motivators for students to work hard. Early college high schools blend high school 

and college-level courses in a supportive but rigorous program, compressing the time 

it takes to complete a high school diploma and the first two years of college. 

In the dual enrollment program at Marysville Early College STEM High School, 

students have the opportunity to graduate with not only a high school degree, but 

also an associate degree from Columbus State. Additionally, graduates possess skills 

that they can use right away, including mechanical engineering, robotics and welding skills. Honda believes this type of school can be replicated, not just across Ohio 

but also throughout the country as a way to help reduce the skills shortage. 

At the postsecondary level, Honda works with multiple institutions including Columbus State, Clark State, Edison State, Marion Technical, Rhodes State and Sinclair, to develop a STEM-focused curriculum with real-world applications. Classroom 

lessons are supplemented with plant visits, mentorships, scholarships and workstudy programs to encourage interest but—more importantly—further develop the 

skills essential to a successful technical career. 

One example of providing students with access to technical training is a workstudy partnership with Columbus State, which is designed so students can work at 

Honda three days a week and go to school two days. This program gives students 

the chance to build technical skills while earning their degrees. The partnership 

also provides students with a way to graduate debt free and an opportunity to pursue a career with Honda. Upon graduation, students may be offered a full-time position with the company. 

While the majority of the efforts I’ve highlighted thus far are based in Ohio, 

Honda has similar efforts in other communities where we have manufacturing operations in the United States. One of our more recent partnerships is with Guilford 

Technical Community College (GTCC) in North Carolina, global headquarters of 

Honda Aircraft Company, Inc. that produces the award-winning HondaJet. 

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Honda worked closely with GTCC to develop programs to train prospective Honda 

aircraft technicians and avionics experts. Honda continues to work with Guilford 

College as it expands its new avionics program. The government has also supported 

Guilford in the expansion of these programs, which has resulted in an emerging 

aerospace and advanced manufacturing industry cluster in the region. 

In Indiana, Honda has partnered with Ivy Tech Community College to offer paid 

internship opportunities for students enrolled in the school’s advanced automation 

and robotics technology program, an area where the skills gap is acutely felt by 

manufacturers. Ivy Tech students have the opportunity to work two days a week 

at Honda while continuing their education at Ivy Tech. These internships offer students an opportunity to apply their knowledge in the real world and for Honda to 

evaluate the student for potential full-time employment. 

C. Continuing Education 

Because the technology in modern manufacturing, particularly that within the 

automotive industry, is constantly changing, we make a commitment to ensure that 

education does not stop once associates are hired. It does not matter if associates 

have five years of work experience or 25. Honda remains committed to ensuring our 

workforce has the skills necessary to be part of our exciting future. To that end, 

we have established technical training centers near several of our manufacturing 

operations including in Ohio, Indiana and Alabama. These training centers help ensure that Honda associates stay current with the robotics and technology in their 

work process and, most importantly, can continue to develop professionally by building on the skills and knowledge they have gained throughout their careers. Honda 

is constantly looking for the most effective method to provide associates with the 

skills required to produce the high-quality products we build. One example is the 

use of Virtual Reality technology or ‘‘VR.’’ This technology allows associates to interact with virtual components and equipment simulating real equipment in a training 

environment reducing material and equipment costs. This type of technology may 

be used in a secondary or post-secondary classroom setting in the future to help prepare students for technical manufacturing careers. 

The success of these technical training centers is a credit to our partnerships with 

academic institutions like Columbus State. By having educational professionals 

work with our technicians, Honda is able to employ best practices and educational 

techniques that are critical to the success of these programs. We are also able to 

ensure the alignment of Columbus State’s curriculum with the skills required within 

Honda’s production facilities. 

D. Recommendations 

We strongly believe that Honda’s future and the future of manufacturing in the 

United States rests in the hands of programs like the ones I have outlined today. 

These programs have been developed so that they can easily be adopted in other 

regions of the United States based on the activities and philanthropic approach of 

the various Honda operations and/or by other companies. 

The key theme throughout this presentation is ‘‘partnership.’’ Closing the manufacturing skills gap will be impossible without proactive collaboration between academia, government and private industry. While many partnerships already exist, 

there must be a significant increase and expansion of these collaborative attempts 

to develop a 21st Century workforce. 

Additionally, continued support and improved access for STEM education is critical to ensuring that our future workforce have the skills to compete in modern 

manufacturing. 

One thing Congress can do immediately is to reauthorize the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, which recently passed the House of Representatives. The current version of the bill will help encourage more collaboration between 

stakeholders to ensure students have a pathway to a relevant and meaningful technical career. 

Like many employers, Honda stands ready to work with Congress to help solve 

the critical workforce issues that stifle the full economic potential of our country. 

I want to thank the members of this committee for your interest in this issue and 

for inviting me today to highlight some of Honda’s efforts. We greatly appreciate 

being included in this very important conversation. 

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1For example, Molloy, Raven, Christopher L. Smith, and Abigail K. Wozniak. Declining migration within the US: The role of the labor market. No. w20065. National Bureau of Economic 

Research, 2014 and Fallick, Bruce, John Haltiwanger, and Erika McEntarfer. ‘‘Job-to-job flows 

and the consequences of job separations,’’ 2012. 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF BETSEY STEVENSON, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS

AND PUBLIC POLICY, THE GERALD R. FORD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY

OF MICHIGAN

Chairman Tiberi, Ranking Member Heinrich, thank you for the invitation to testify today about the state of the job market and the record number of vacancies that 

our businesses posted at the end of April. I want to start by placing job openings 

in the context of a strengthening labor market. Today’s high level of vacancies is 

largely a reflection of strong job growth. Then I will turn to challenges in the labor 

market in filling positions. 

A STRONG LABOR MARKET

As of June 2017, the unemployment rate stood at 4.4 percent. The sharp drop in 

the unemployment rate coming out of the Great Recession consistently surpassed 

consensus forecasts, thanks to the stimulus package (ARRA) and fiscal and monetary policies that strengthened the economy and boosted aggregate demand. 

Businesses are continuing to hire in large numbers. Just this past June total hiring once again surpassed expectations. Over the past six years, we’re seen the longest, most persistent streak of job growth on record. Since March 2010, businesses 

have added nearly 16.5 million jobs. Today there are 7.8 million more jobs than the 

pre-recession peak. All of this growth has led to more openings, and as the committee has noted, the number of job vacancies on the last business day in April was 

the highest since the series began in 2000. To put this in context, during the depths 

of the recession new job postings dropped to a low of 2.2 million a month. 

The number of vacancies are recorded on the last business day of the month. This 

point in time snapshot of available jobs can be compared to the subsequent hiring 

that happens over the next several weeks. Over the past six months, there have 

been 5.6 million vacancies on average on the last business day of each month. Over 

the subsequent month, 5.3 million workers were hired, illustrating the close link between vacancies and hiring. 

One of the clearest signs of the strengthening labor market has been the increase 

in workers quitting jobs. During the depths of the recession, only 1.6 million workers quit a job in September of 2009. In contrast, over the past year, more than 3 

million workers a month have quit a job. Workers’ willingness to quit suggests that 

they are receiving better offers or have confidence that they’ll be able to find other 

work. 

The typical hiring of roughly 5 million workers a month is the result of a dynamic 

labor market in which entrepreneurs hire people for their new businesses, and old 

businesses fill positions as people leave and create new jobs as they expand. Roughly 5 million workers also leave jobs each month as they seek better opportunities, 

or as businesses eliminate jobs they no longer need, or to close their doors completely when the market no longer wants their products. For workers, job changes 

are essential for them to climb the ladder to better and higher-paying opportunities. 

Research shows that changing jobs is a primary way in which workers achieve real 

wage gains, on the order of 2–6 percent increase in real wages from job changes in 

recent years.1

I want to highlight that one of the challenges facing the U.S. labor market in recent decades has been a decline in dynamism. Dynamism is what allows the reallocation of workers and capital to their most productive use. When workers can 

find better opportunities easily, both businesses and workers benefit. 

SECTORAL SHIFTS LEAVE SOME WORKERS WITHOUT NECESSARY SKILLS AND REQUIRE

NEW TRAINING PROGRAMS

While job change is a natural and essential part of our economy, sectoral shifts 

present challenges for workers and for policy makers seeking to smooth the costs 

associated with these transitions. Workers in shrinking sectors face a decreasing 

number of opportunities for wage gains, and an increasing likelihood of being left 

without a job if they lose the one they have. Goods-producing jobs, most notably 

manufacturing, are losing jobs, while healthcare, education, and information technology are adding jobs. While more jobs are being added across sectors than are lost, 

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stantial churn within the sector. For example, over the past two decades more than 

sixty million people were hired into manufacturing jobs, yet more than sixty-five 

million people quit or lost manufacturing jobs. It’s like a game of musical chairs in 

which the number of chairs shrunk by five million. Those who lose their seat face 

tremendous hardship and a difficult, and sometimes impossible, transition as they 

struggle to find one of the remaining positions or give up and attempt to apply their 

skills and experience elsewhere. 

Sectoral changes are not a new force in the U.S. economy, but the changes that 

are occurring are hurting some groups more than others. Many declining sectors are 

in traditionally male occupations, while traditionally female or more gender-mixed 

occupations are growing. These changes will require that we not only provide training for workers to successfully transition, but that we confront and eliminate stereotypes about jobs and the people who hold them. That may require rethinking how 

we train workers for these jobs since research shows that education and training 

methods, materials, instructors, and even environment can shape gender and racial 

inclusivity. 

Growing sectors represent opportunities for workers, but they also present challenges in that hiring needs may outpace the skills of current workers. Since the end 

of 2000, more than 104 million people have been hired in education and health services and nearly 97 million people have left such jobs, for a net gain of 7.5 million 

jobs. At the end of March, there were 4.6 million vacancies in education and health 

services, but only 2.6 million workers were hired the following month. A similar pattern has held over the past few years, with openings exceeding hiring suggesting 

that perhaps this is an industry that is struggling to find qualified workers. However, there is little evidence of accelerated wage growth in the health care sector, 

suggesting that demand for workers isn’t outpacing supply enough to lead to higher 

wages. 

LARGE WAGE PREMIUMS FOR COLLEGE-EDUCATED WORKERS HIGHLIGHT THE DEMAND

FOR COLLEGE-LEVEL SKILLS

Wages provide a clear market-based signal of demand for skills and one of the 

clearest signs of demand for skills is the strong growth in wages of college-educated 

workers compared to those with less education. The gap between the earnings of college-educated adults and those with a high school degree are large and have grown 

over the past thirty-five years. Over the last decade, the wage advantage of collegeeducated workers has never been greater, contributing to an increasing gap between 

those with substantial higher education and those without. 

The benefits of a four-year degree are also seen in the substantially lower unemployment rate for college graduates—2.4 percent in June 2017—compared to 4.6 percent for high school graduates and 3.8 percent for those with only some college. 

Labor force participation rates also differ by education—73.9 percent of college graduates over age 25 were in the labor force in June 2017, compared to 57.5 percent 

of those with only high school. Labor force participation rates are difficult to interpret today because the aging of the population is placing downward pressure on the 

fraction of people in the labor force as Baby Boomers begin to retire—a pressure 

that the U.S. economy will face for some time. However, similar patterns are seen 

when examining prime age—those 25 to 54 years old—workers. Among prime age 

men who are college graduates roughly 9 in 10 are employed, compared to roughly 

8 in 10 with a high school degree. 

These differences are important to highlight because one of the largest challenges 

the labor force faces in developing the skills of workers is ensuring that students 

from across the income spectrum have access to successfully and affordably complete 

a four-year degree. While many people argue that college for all may not be necessary, or even possible, it is important to recognize that a century ago the same 

arguments were made about public high school. Our country’s willingness to ignore 

these naysayers and make high school free and widely available was an engine of 

economic growth in the last century. While the United States led the world in educating our citizens last century, we have failed to keep up as other countries’ student successes have surpassed ours. 

GREATER WAGE GAINS ARE NECESSARY

One of the missing pieces of evidence when it comes to assessing a mismatch between the skills that employers demand and the skills that workers have is wages. 

Many researchers have diligently sought evidence of worker shortages that would 

naturally, in a competitive market, lead the businesses who would benefit most from 

hiring such workers to bid up their wages. While job growth exceeded expectations 

this past June, wage growth once again undershot expectations. Wage growth was 

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slow coming out of the recession, yet accelerated in 2015 and 2016. From 2014 to 

2015, real median household income grew $2,800—the fastest growth on record. 

Wages for all private sector workers grew an average of 2.9 percent in 2016. Yet, 

growth in both wages and overall compensation per hour has slowed in recent quarters. 

Many economists have pointed to slow growth in labor productivity as a source 

of slower wage growth. Higher productivity should, in theory, lead to higher wages 

and is an important reason for workers to acquire the skills that employers are 

seeking. The connection between wages and productivity is important and provides 

an incentive for workers to become more productive. However, in recent decades the 

link between productivity and wages has weakened and the wages of most workers 

have not risen as rapidly as productivity. There are several potential explanations 

for this decoupling of wages and productivity—including declining unionization, reduced worker bargaining power, and reduced worker mobility. Businesses are also 

increasingly engaging in anti-competitive labor market policies including forbidding 

the sharing of pay information and requiring noncompete clauses. Congress should 

seek to make the labor market as fair as possible by penalizing business that engage in such anticompetitive practices. Additionally, policies like updated overtime 

regulations, a robust minimum wage, enforcing workplace protections are all key 

areas that could help raise wages and improve working conditions. 

The current pace of job growth is unsustainable unless more workers elect to join 

the labor force. The challenge that businesses will increasingly face as they continue 

to hire is not that the workers who are available do not have the skills they are 

seeking, but that there will simply be too few workers available for them to find 

workers. Higher wages and better working conditions are therefore essential to ensure that more workers are encouraged to participate. 

JOB TRAINING AND APPRENTICESHIPS PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN BUILDING WORKER’S

SKILLS

There is a large role for training programs, apprenticeships, and community colleges to play in preparing workers to transition to the jobs that employers are hiring 

in. One policy that can help both employers and employees and strengthen the overall economy is evidence-based job training programs. In his FY2017 budget President Obama outlined a comprehensive strategy to invest in highly demanded skills 

and education to make our economy more competitive in the 21st century. While 

preparing workers for jobs begins with education when children are young, it continues in adulthood by helping workers get the skills to make the American economy more competitive. One of the most important skills all workers need in the 21st 

century is the ability to learn on the job and adapt to new technologies and new 

ways of doing things. That’s why successful programs not only teach concrete skills, 

but help participants develop lifelong learning abilities. This is also why ultimately 

the success of our adult training programs has its roots in our preschool programs. 

Successful training programs require evidence and adaptation to that evidence. 

WIOA, which covers job training programs for 20 million people a year, includes reporting and measurement aspects that will build the evidence base about what 

works in job training, and what we can do better. Crucially, WIOA passed with bipartisan support, and additional investments could help states and localities set up 

the infrastructure necessary to track what happens to workers after training programs. 

THE NEED FOR NEW AND INNOVATIVE APPRENTICESHIPS

Apprenticeships are an important part of worker training and some people are 

best suited to learn through hands-on doing. Additionally, apprenticeships help 

workers learn the skills associated with learning-on-the-job, an important skill in 

its own right in an ever evolving economy. Yet, apprenticeships have traditionally 

focused on a narrow slice of the labor market and need to be adapted and expanded 

to provide training for the jobs of the future. Research shows that apprenticeships 

tend to lead to higher-paying jobs—the average apprentice earns a starting wage 

of $60,000, more than the median worker’s income, and 89 percent of people who 

complete registered apprenticeship programs are employed once their training ends. 

Based on this evidence, the Obama Administration allocated $265 million toward 

apprenticeship funding, and between 2014 and 2016, active apprenticeships increased 31 percent. Continuing and building this investment is crucial to prepare 

our economy for the 21st century. 

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THE IMPORTANCE OF FAIR WAGES AND A COMPETITIVE LABOR MARKET

Government investment in job training and worker investment programs is one 

solution, but it’s not the only answer. Businesses can do more to invest in workers. 

Many leading businesses have realized that the investments they make in their 

workers today have long-term benefits. From Henry Ford a century ago, leading 

businesses have realized they can attract and retain top talent by paying higher 

wages. Henry Ford called raising wages his best cost-cutting business decision. The 

reason was that his workers knew that it would be hard to find as good a job as 

they had with Ford if they were to lose their job. In today’s labor market, business 

policies that may seem like they are cost-cutting in the short-run are hurting businesses as well as workers. When workers are easily replaced and jobs pay the bare 

minimum needed to hire workers, businesses can easily lose the loyalty and conscientiousness that lead to fewer mistakes and higher productivity. In fact, there is 

an important link between business management skills and worker skills. Research 

shows that the businesses with better management have workers with higher average skills and have less attrition—importantly, they also pay their workers higher 

wages compared to the market as a whole. 

Let me end by noting that much of the strong labor market we’re seeing today 

is due to actions Congress, the Administration, and the Federal Reserve took that 

prevented the recession from becoming a depression—stimulating the economy 

through investments and tax cuts, stabilizing the financial sector, assisting the auto 

industry, supporting the housing market, and reducing long-term interest rates. Estimates from the Council of Economic Advisers show ARRA and other fiscal measures saved or created about 9 million job-years through 2012 and increased GDP 

by 9.5 percent, relative to its 2008 level. All of this shows that policy can, and does, 

make a difference. 

Thank you. 

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QUESTIONS FOR THE RECORD FOR MS. FURCHTGOTT-ROTH SUBMITTED BY SENATOR

AMY KLOBUCHAR

THE IMPORTANCE OF EARLY PREPARATION: ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION

We must do everything in our power to prepare our children for the future. Last 

Congress, we passed a bipartisan bill that makes critical updates to ‘‘No Child Left 

Behind.’’ I worked on a provision in this bill with my colleague Senator Hoeven to 

expand STEM opportunities by allowing school districts to use Federal funding to 

create STEM specialty schools or to enhance existing STEM programs within schools. • In addition to improving STEM education, what other steps could help prepare 

our children for postsecondary education and the labor force? 

This is a very important question. We need to make sure that children graduate 

with better math and writing skills so they will be prepared to start a job, a community college certification, or a four-year college program. 

I have written about the failure of primary and secondary school education in 

Chapter 3 of my book, ‘‘Disinherited: How Washington Is Betraying America’s 

Young,’’ coauthored with Jared Meyer and published by Encounter Books in 2015. 

In 2016 the book won the Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Prize from the 

Atlas Foundation. 

In most fields, if you cannot do your job, you are replaced with someone who can. 

But not in education. First, measuring teaching ability is not simple, and matching 

teachers with students is not always easy to do—especially if parents are not allowed to choose their children’s schools. Second, unqualified teachers can often stay 

on because they are protected by the educational system. 

In 2015, American 15-year-olds scored several points below the Organization for 

Economic Cooperation and Development average on the PISA examination in mathematics, considered the gold standard for international testing. The U.S. ranking fell 

to 35th from 28th in 2012 in math, underperforming the OECD average. Small 

countries such as Latvia, Malta, and Vietnam, and large countries such as China 

and Russia all do better than we do in math. In reading and science, our 15-yearolds are above average, but around 24th, after Canada and most of Europe. 

Children in the OECD member nations and in China, Vietnam, and Russia have 

longer school days and more days in the school calendar than do American children. 

Plus, when these children are at school, they have fewer hours of sports, assembly, 

and politically correct programs connected with, for instance, Women’s History 

Month and Earth Day. Young Americans are often not taught difficult subjects, such 

as advanced literature or history, serious mathematics, hard sciences, or in-demand 

skills such as computer programming. Schools have dropped useful, career-oriented 

skills such as wood shop and auto mechanics. 

Even if children do not do well in watered-down curricula, they are shuffled along 

to the next grade. The Board of Education is more interested in pleasing parents 

than in providing a solid curriculum. In order to graduate, some students have to 

have a certain number of hours of community service, but they do not have to meet 

standards in reading or math. 

This is part of a pattern of American education that measures inputs rather than 

outputs. We measure hours of attendance and hours of community service rather 

than skills acquired. We often give extra credit for effort, but we do not require 

higher levels of competency in order to earn a high school diploma. 

In contrast, many countries around the world focus high school graduation on a 

final set of exams, whether General Certificates of Secondary Education in England, 

the baccalaureate in France, or the Abitur in Germany. They do not consider hours 

of community service or level of effort; what matters is how well young people can 

demonstrate what they have learned. The result is predictable. Countries that 

evaluate young people on outputs such as how well they perform on an exam 

produce students who are more competent than those in countries that measure inputs. 

Despite young Americans’ poor performance, one area in which the Nation excels 

is in self-esteem. Eighty-four percent of American eighth-graders agreed with the 

statement ‘‘I usually do well in mathematics,’’ with 39 percent of eighth-graders 

agreeing ‘‘a lot.’’ This confidence does not translate into academic performance, however—in Singapore, where only 64 percent of eighth-graders have confidence in their 

math ability, the least-confident group of students outperforms the most-confident 

group of American students on international math assessments. 

Immediately after World War II, the United States had better high school graduation rates than in any other country. How have we fallen so far? 

Many believe that systemic poverty and underfunded schools are the cause of students’ poor performance. But in the last 40 years, school funding has exploded. The 

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annual per-student cost of primary and secondary education in America is more 

than $13,000. After adjusting for inflation, this amounts to an increase of 239 percent over the last half century. America spends more on education per student than 

any other country in the world, yet average student achievement is only mediocre. 

Contrary to what many education advocates argue, increased spending by itself has 

not helped and will not do so in the future. 

Part of the problem lies in dysfunctional families. In the recent book ‘‘Hillbilly 

Elegy,’’ author J.D. Vance explained that no matter how good his school would have 

been, he could not concentrate on his studies due to his parents’ fights at home, 

their subsequent divorce, and his mother’s problems with drugs. He was woken several times during the night and shuttled from one parent to another. Solutions to 

these problems are beyond the scope of my reply to this question. 

Another problem is that parents often want to send their children to good schools, 

but there are none available. In cities such as Washington, D.C., and New York 

where there are active charter schools, the good schools are vastly oversubscribed, 

and candidates chosen by lottery. America needs a system where poor schools go out 

of business and new schools thrive, just as with other businesses, such as restaurants. 

We should also look at extending the hours of the school day, reducing vacations, 

and eliminating some of the time devoted to sports, so that children have more academic content in the school year. 

QUESTIONS FOR THE RECORD FOR DR. DAVID HARRISON SUBMITTED BY SENATOR AMY

KLOBUCHAR

THE IMPORTANCE OF EARLY PREPARATION: ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION

We must do everything in our power to prepare our children for the future. Last 

Congress, we passed a bipartisan bill that makes critical updates to ‘‘No Child Left 

Behind.’’ I worked on a provision in this bill with my colleague Senator Hoeven to 

expand STEM opportunities by allowing school districts to use Federal funding to 

create STEM specialty schools or to enhance existing STEM programs within schools. 

• In addition to improving STEM education, what other steps could help prepare 

our children for postsecondary education and the labor force? 

STEM education is an important component in college and career readiness for 

students. American Electric Power (AEP) and the AEP Foundation partnered with 

Columbus State to establish the Credits Count program to develop STEM career exploration opportunities in middle school, and to bolster college readiness by enabling 

high school students to earn college credits while still in high school in STEM-related fields. The Federal Government can support these regional efforts by expanding programs that are working. The National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education program is an important source of venture capital for community colleges to develop programs with employers. We are the only community college in the U.S. selected for the U.S. Department of Education’s Investing in Innovation (i3) program, which will fund an aggressive expansion of programs designed to 

enhance college and career readiness in schools with a high percentage of low-income families. 

In addition to STEM education, research shows that dual enrollment programs, 

like Credits Count, has a positive impact on college readiness. Findings from a report released by the National Student Clearinghouse indicated that students who 

earn college credit while still in high school have a 66 percent college completion 

rate, which is 12 percent higher than that of students who do not take dual credit 

classes while still in high school. 

In Ohio, state policy has been adopted to further advance college credit pathways 

for high school students and create a deeper alignment between secondary and postsecondary education. College Credit Plus enables high school students to begin taking college coursework as soon as they are ready. Last year more than 4,800 high 

school students from 140 high schools and 60 school districts enrolled at Columbus 

State through College Credit Plus. 

Columbus State has leveraged public-private partnerships and extensive employer 

collaboration described in the written testimony to quickly bring proven practices 

and programs to scale. We expect this growth to continue as more students and families look to Columbus State for a high-quality, affordable pathway to STEM careers. 

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QUESTION FOR THE RECORD FOR MR. SCOT MCLEMORE SUBMITTED BY SENATOR AMY

KLOBUCHAR

QUESTION: THE IMPORTANCE OF EARLY PREPARATION: ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY

EDUCATION

We must do everything in our power to prepare our children for the future. Last 

Congress, we passed a bipartisan bill that makes critical updates to ‘‘No Child Left 

Behind.’’ I worked on a provision in this bill with my colleague Senator Hoeven to 

expand STEM opportunities by allowing school districts to use Federal funding to 

create STEM specialty schools or to enhance existing STEM programs within schools. 

• In addition to improving STEM education, what other steps could help prepare 

our children for postsecondary education and the labor force? 

Thank you for the question and your efforts to expand access to STEM education. 

Honda supports early STEM education but also believes a clear ‘‘line of sight’’ 

should be provided for students and parents to better understand pathways to manufacturing careers. We must create enthusiasm for the career paths and job opportunities related to STEM disciplines through direct engagement with students and 

educators. Honda’s educational video game, mobile labs, and plant tour are designed 

to address outdated perceptions of manufacturing and highlight the benefits of a career in modern manufacturing. Providing students with hands-on experience, even 

a virtual simulation, is an important step in creating enthusiasm for a manufacturing career and for other professional sectors as well. Efforts must also be made 

to engage parents, teachers and guidance counselors, who too often advocate that 

a four-year college route is necessary for professional success. Post-secondary workstudy programs, like Honda’s partnership with Columbus State Community College, 

allow students to experience the manufacturing environment and graduate debt-free 

with an associate degree that provides them the immediate skills needed to enter 

the labor force. 

QUESTIONS FOR THE RECORD FOR DR. BETSEY STEVENSON SUBMITTED BY SENATOR

AMY KLOBUCHAR

WORKFORCE TRAINING AND APPRENTICESHIPS

Dr. Stevenson, workforce training is crucial to make sure that our workers are 

trained today for the jobs of tomorrow. Senator Collins and I have introduced the 

American Apprenticeship Act, which provides competitive grants to states that have 

developed effective strategies to diversify, market, and expand Registered Apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs. Our community colleges also play an important role in helping to create a high-skilled workforce, and I have seen the benefits 

of apprenticeship programs and community colleges working with local industries in 

Minnesota. 

• Can you discuss how apprenticeships and community college programs can work 

together to help workers build the skills they need to compete in the 21st century 

economy? 

• From your experience, can you discuss in more detail the benefits of apprenticeship programs in a broader range of career paths and skills? 

• What gaps do you currently see in Federal policy when it comes to supporting 

and expanding apprenticeships in the United States? 

In the 20th century, America led the world in educating her citizens. While other 

countries mocked us for training people who they claimed didn’t need training, we 

ignored these naysayers and built more high schools. The result was that we went 

from only 6% of 18-year-olds with a high school degree in 1900 to more than half 

by 1940. Today, nearly nine in ten Americans age 25 and older have a high school 

diploma, and one in three Americans have a bachelor’s degree. Many scholars have 

argued that by bolstering the skills of American workers we laid the foundation for 

the tremendous growth that America experienced in the 20th century. 

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The rate of return for investing in education is high—each year of college raises 

lifetime earnings by around 8 percent, and completing a college degree raises a person’s lifetime earnings by more than a million dollars. Because a more educated citizenry is a more productive workforce, countries with more educated citizens tend 

to have greater GDP per person. 

It is clear that it is time for the United States to take back the lead in training 

our citizens if we want to continue to have a successful and innovative economy. 

So what’s the best way to do that? We need to make college more affordable and 

accessible to more people. But even more important to our success, we need to increase the rate at which people succeed and successfully complete college or other 

training programs. Apprenticeships and other on-the-job training during school hold 

the possibility of preparing students for the world of work, while keeping them engaged, motivated, and confident enough to complete their studies. 

Many people learn better through situated learning by actively participating in 

the learning experience, such as what occurs during apprenticeships. The United 

States faces two pressing challenges in developing apprenticeship programs. The 

first is that there are far too few. Apprenticeships have been growing and the Department of Labor, as I’m sure you are aware, currently lists more than a half million active apprentices. A study by the Center for American Progress, however, argues that this is less than a tenth of what other countries, such as the United Kingdom, have once you adjust for population size. To put it in perspective, there are 

roughly 20 million people attending college. We could and should expand apprenticeship slots substantially. 

The second problem is that apprenticeships need to move beyond the trade occupations into services. The U.S. economy is a service-based economy. Construction 

and manufacturing jobs, a focus for many apprenticeship programs, are a mere 13 

percent of all jobs in the economy. Eighty-four percent of workers employed in the 

private sector in the United States work in the service-producing sector. A third of 

our exports are services, such as business and professional services like consulting, 

computer services, and financial services. In order for apprenticeships to succeed in 

training workers for the jobs of the future, our apprenticeship programs need to expand into the types of jobs workers are more likely to be hired into. For instance, 

last month 45 thousand jobs were created in health care and social assistance. 

There need to be more apprenticeship programs dedicated to areas such as health 

and educational services. 

Community colleges can play an important role in developing hybrid programs in 

which students do necessary classroom learning that is complemented by on-the-job 

training. Such programs may be particularly important to raise productivity in the 

service sector and to provide workers with the skills they need as our economy continues to shift toward one that requires workers to have more adaptable skills. 

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