Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and Republican Senator Connie Mack, chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, talk to Margaret Warner. Unemployment is down. Corporate profits are up.
Inflation remains low.
Yet, many working Americans, like this group in Dayton, Ohio, say they feel economically insecure. I feel very insecure because I haven't got the skills for today's work world. Well, I think when I graduated from college back in the 70's, I had a perception that my career would be with maybe one or two companies, and that it would last as long as I wanted it to, but the security would be there, and I think that over the, over the past two decades, I've had an awakening to the fact that it's not that way anymore. Whether these individual experiences add up to a national problem is a point hotly debated by economists. But what isn't debatable is that the American economy is undergoing a major transition, and the changes have left many Americans feeling vulnerable.