An update of the recently issued report by the Commerce Department s Office of Technology Policy, America s New Deficit , will also be released. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley and Deputy Secretary of Labor Kitty Higgins will also announce initiatives for their respective Departments of Education and Labor. As chronicled in the report, America s New Deficit , there is mounting evidence suggesting that U.S. businesses are having difficulty recruiting adequate numbers of personnel who can develop, apply, and use information technology. If the U.S. cannot fulfill its need for workers with information technology skills, U.S. innovation, competitiveness, productivity, and economic growth could be undermined.
Information technologies are the most important enabling technologies in the economy today.
They affect every sector and industry in the U.S., in terms of digitally-based products, services, and processes. Information technologies are also expected to form the basis of many important products, services, and processes of the future. U.S. performance in important markets could also be undermined.