I appreciate the opportunity to contribute to your work by providing an overview of the Commerce Department s latest report on the subject, The Digital Work Force Challenge, Building Infotech Skills at the Speed of Innovation .
Information technologies are a driving force in our strong economy.
Over the past four years, IT-producing industries have contributed to more than one third of real economic growth. In 1996 and 1997, falling prices in IT-producing industries brought down overall inflation by an average of 0.7 percentage points, contributing to the remarkable ability of the U.S. economy to control inflation and keep interest rates low in a period of historically low unemployment. The IT industries have achieved extraordinary productivity gains. The widespread deployment of digital technology has created very strong demand for highly-skilled IT workers, and there continue to be many reports of employers having trouble recruiting and retaining enough workers with the skills in demand. Meeting our country s need for IT skills, of course, is the charge to this Commission, and it is also the subject of our report.