Excerpts: Secretary Buttigieg Remarks at Department of Labor ETA Vision 2030 Workforce Convening

I want to recognize the great partners we have in the Administration -- the leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris, the work of Dr. Biden, who cares, of course, so much about this. And I know you've been hearing a lot about the Biden Education Pathway, which is a vision starting from that free, high-quality universal preschool, all the way through to the initiatives that will see people trained and placed in good jobs - and so much of that great work is happening at the Department of Labor. So, I want to thank Acting Secretary Julie Su for the partnership, for everything that she does, and I know there's so much leadership, I think John Costa is here from ATU, there's so much leadership from our -- there he is, thank you for what you're doing and being here -- our leaders in the labor unions who are with us to build that stronger workforce that we need. 

I'm a very future-oriented person, but I think it's important for us to pause in a moment like this and look back a little bit at what we learned from the last time we were doing anything like this, which was the 1960s when most of the work building the infrastructure of the Interstate Highway System began. And I know we're at the close of a three-day session, so I need you to forgive me for subjecting us all to some math, but we're going to do a little math together. 

So, if someone got a job, a construction worker, helping to build the Interstate Highway System in 1967, they could be expected to make wages that would amount to about $60,000 a year in today's dollars. Over the course of a five-year construction project, they could have made enough to put a down payment on a house which would, on average, then be worth about $400,000 today. On top of that, if they were able to put 5% of their income into retirement savings back then, that would be worth over $350,000 now. And that would put their household wealth today at about six times the median - for that family, for the descendants of that construction worker, one generation in. All off of one good job. That homeownership, the chance to educate the next generation, could all happen off from one job. 

And so the moral of that math, to me, is that one good job can change the trajectory of a family. 

And it follows from that, that of course, 1 million or 10 million good jobs can change the trajectory of a generation. 

And that's what we're in the middle of right now.

Right now, we are in the middle of the biggest infrastructure and industrial investment in America since the 1960s and then some, depending on how you count. And during this conference, I know you been hearing a lot about President Biden's Investing in America vision, where we're modernizing our infrastructure, bringing our supply chains back into the US, manufacturing more electric vehicles, advanced microchips, everything in between. 

These are the investments and the industries that America is going to need, both to thrive now and to grow years from now. When I'm thinking about our soon-to-be two-year-old toddler twins entering the workforce, which I'm sure will happen before we're ready for it, given that everything with them happens before we got ready for it. We took our first flight with them as toddlers, and the evasive maneuvers that at just like one-and-a-half that they have already developed is frightening. For now, we're still slightly faster and bigger and a little smarter than them, but what I realize is that we're not getting any smarter, bigger, or faster, maybe if anything a little less so, and they're going to overtake us pretty quick. And so, as you know, it gets personal when you're a parent thinking about what's at stake. 

And I try to think about that every time we're going through the sometimes mind-numbing numbers of all of this. But the numbers are incredible: 32,000 infrastructure projects moving forward in 4,500 communities across the country, and $470 billion in private sector manufacturing and clean energy investments, since President Biden took office. Eight hundred thousand manufacturing jobs, which means a lot of me as a son of the industrial Midwest. 

And that doesn't even reflect jobs at the factories that are still under construction - like some of the EV battery facilities that I saw in Kansas and Kentucky. I grew up in the shadow of an 800,000 square foot, long-empty Studebaker Factory building in Downtown South Bend, Indiana, learning about what it meant both to have those jobs and to lose them. And to go out and see in places like DeSoto, Kansas and Glendale, Kentucky, facilities that are easily five times that massive structure, that are going to be filled with workers in a year is inspiring, and daunting because we know we've got a lot to do to get ready for that. 

And, by the way, this is something that is going to meet people at every education level. About two-thirds of infrastructure workers making $60,000 a year or more don't have a bachelor's degree. Although, as you all know and as you all helped to make real, they need enormous skills and readiness whether they got a college degree or not. 

So, we're really looking to you to help us get the job done in three key areas. 

First, as you know, we need pathways to get more people into these good jobs. There is a recent estimate for Brookings suggesting that we might need to fill as many as 15 million infrastructure jobs in the next decade. So, we have a range of programs intended to help do that.
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We want these organizations we're funding -- the cities, the states, the ports, the transit agencies, the Tribal Nations to be working with all of you to recruit and train workers. In some areas we're actually able to fund it. If we send funding to a transit agency to buy a new low-emission bus, there's a requirement that 5% of that funding go to workforce. And you're the ones who can connect the dots to the community college or the training facility, or whatever it's actually going to take to make that happen. 

We've got a fantastic partnership with the DOL where they're making $80 million available to help all of you work with those local transportation partners to scale the programs that are working, or to pilot new efforts that are worth a try. And we've released guidance to help states use some of their highway funding for workforce development. Because we know that one of the biggest barriers between so many people, especially, but not only women entering the workforce, is something like childcare. And it is very much a workforce concern and an infrastructure problem, I would argue, if we don't solve that. And we're seeing states create statewide programs -- Oregon, Wisconsin, California, Illinois, making great progress. So that's one area. 

Second, we've got to make sure that the jobs we are creating aren’t just jobs, but good jobs, quality jobs. And when possible, union jobs. Our competitive grants give additional consideration to applicants when they show that they are creating good-paying jobs with a free and fair choice to join a union. And we're seeing a lot of them demonstrate what they can do with a project labor agreement and union training partnerships. 

And then third, and this is so important, making sure there is fair access to these jobs. Again, we're thinking of the lessons from the last time we did this. We built magnificent infrastructure in this country, but also did it at a terrible cost. There were a lot of people and a lot of communities that did not have the political power or the means to make their voice heard. And what that meant was that there were a lot of people in disadvantaged communities who were more likely to be on the business end of a bulldozer, in terms of their neighborhoods and their homes, then to be in the business of creating these good-paying jobs and benefiting from them delivering that. And I mention that not to make everybody feel guilty, but precisely because we can do it differently and better this time, and when we do, we're going to be proud of it. And we're counting on you, and we know we can look to you to help us get that done.

As we modernize our roads and our bridges, our rail and our transit, our ports and our airports, communities who are most impacted are helping to shape, and importantly, helping to build those projects. 

I've been on a recruiting roadshow. I've been going out to colleges and universities, community colleges, HBCUs, Hispanic-serving institutions. And we've expanded the rules around local hire, so that more contractors know the expectation of hiring workers from the same communities where the projects are happening. And just literally out the window of my office at DOT I can see, in the Frederick Douglas Bridge -- right here in DC -- an example of the good that can come from that. I met workers at LAX, who were brought into the job through a local hire program, pursuant to a PLA by the way, and it was really designed for those who grew up in that zip code, the same zip code as LAX, which is an area that's been through a lot, and seeing not just the income they were making, but what you all know who work in and around workforce and labor, the pride that came with it, the belonging that came with it. Some of them had been previously incarcerated, some of them had been unhoused, and now they were getting ready to buy their own home.  They were an example, not just example for me to use in a speech, but more importantly, an example to their own children, who they could bring to the airport and say, I put that sign in there, I had something to do with the lighting that is lighting this space. It is so moving to be able to see that. [Applause.] And yeah, it's worth taking a beat and being proud of. 

And there are more organizations here at this convening than I can even note, doing work like that across the country.
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And yet we have such a long way to go. And that's the other thing I want to emphasize is that we know that what we're doing here is not just creating opportunity, but frankly, we are pushing the productive capacity of the United States of America. I mean this infrastructure legislation, the other things we're trying to do -- from microchips to EV chargers, to just the concrete and steel we're going to need to build this stuff. It is at the absolute outer edge of what is possible. And the most important part of the productive capacity of the United States of America is, of course, human beings […] making sure the people are ready, and prepared, and empowered, and supported. That's what you're doing. 

So, my biggest order of business is to urge you to keep doing what you're doing. But also, to urge you to keep telling that story, make sure people understand the jobs that are being created and our commitment to making sure that they reach everybody, including young people, including the most underserved and underestimated Americans, in cities, in rural areas, where so many of these jobs will be. 

Because I think we will be able to look back at the 2020s and economic historians will say, part of why wealth gaps started to close, and inequality started to heal, back then in the 2020s, was the level of energy and focus and commitment and intention that people brought to making sure that that opportunity was widely felt. 

And this I know you have been living and breathing. So, I'm so glad you've been able to gather even more expertise to exchange stories about what's working. I can't wait to see you in the field. Nothing would make me happier or prouder than to run into you somewhere and have you tell me about what you will have done since we came together here. Keep up the fantastic work and I'll see you out there. Thanks very much. 

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