technologies coming rapidly on line, the skills that they develop today will likely not last a lifetime. traditionally, broader human capital skills have been associated with higher education, and accordingly the demand for college - trained workers has been increasing rapidly. the result has been that, over the past several decades, the economic returns to workers with college training have on average outstripped those to workers who stopped their formal schooling with a high - school diploma or less. in the past few years, real wage gains for college - educated workers have continued to be rapid, but owing to dynamic economic growth and tightening labor markets, increases for other workers, on average, have kept pace. nonetheless, a wide gap between the wages of college - educated workers and those of high - school - trained workers remains. another consequence of rapid economic and technological change that needs to be addressed is a higher level of worker insecurity, which is the result, i suspect, of fears of potential job skill obsolescence. despite these tightest labor markets in a generation, more workers currently report that they are fearful of losing their jobs than similar surveys found in 1991 at the bottom of the last recession. the marked move of capital from failing technologies to those at the cutting edge has quickened the pace at which job skills become obsolete. the completion of high school once equipped the average worker with sufficient skills to last a lifetime. that is no longer true, as evidenced by the trends in workers returning to school and in businesses expanding and upgrading their on - the - job training. certainly, higher education will continue to play an important role in preparing workers to meet the evolving demands for skilled labor. but the pressure to enlarge the pool of skilled workers requires that we recognize the significant contributions of other educational programs in your communities. community colleges, for example, have become an important provider of job skills training not just for students who may eventually move on to a four - year college or university but for individuals with jobs - particularly older workers seeking to retool or retrain. in some cases, community colleges are providing contract training for employers, part of a broader trend in which employers and their workers are recognizing that to maintain human capital, investment in formal training programs must complement experience on the job. as one might expect, greater worker insecurities are also creating political pressures to reduce the fierce global competition that has emerged in the wake of our 1990s technology boom. protectionist measures, i have no doubt, could temporarily reduce some worker anxie

mr greenspan remarks on some of the economic challenges facing the united states in the new century remarks by mr alan greenspan, chairman of the board of governors of the us federal reserve system, before the annual conference of the national community reinvestment coalition, held in washington, dc, on 22 march 2000. * * * over the past several days, you have been engaged in sharing a good deal of practical information on developments in the financial services industry and on the evolving set of laws and regulations that influence the availability of credit in the communities that you serve. no doubt, many of you are here this morning because of your long - standing interest in the federal reserve ’ s implementation of the community reinvestment act ( cra ). however, because we are now in the final stages of drafting regulations on the sunshine provisions of the gramm - leach - bliley act, i am prohibited from commenting at this time. instead, i would like to discuss with you, in broader terms, some of the challenges facing businesses, workers, and consumers - including those in your communities - as the u. s. economy embarks on a new century. as you know, we have recently established a record for the longest economic expansion in this nation ’ s history. in recent years, it has become increasingly clear that this business cycle differs in a very profound way from the cycles that have characterized post - world war ii america. not only has the expansion achieved record length, but it has done so with far stronger growth than expected. a key factor behind this impressive performance has been the remarkable acceleration in labor productivity, with output per hour in the nonfinancial corporate sector increasing since 1995 at nearly double the average pace of the preceding quarter - century. and because technological change has spawned so many opportunities for businesses to expand the range and value of their goods and services, the introduction of new efficiencies has not led to higher unemployment. rather, the recent period of technological innovation has created a vibrant economy in which opportunities for jobs and new businesses have expanded, enhancing the living standards of a large majority of americans. our challenge, then, is to ensure that we - both policymakers and community leaders - extend the favorable macroeconomic performance and strive to bolster the capabilities of all americans to share in the prosperity that is being generated. when historians look back at the latter half of the 1990s a decade or two hence, i suspect that they will conclude that we are now living through a pivotal period