 The President of the United States, accompanied by Secretary Brock. Good morning. Good morning. It is my distinct pleasure to welcome President Reagan and my colleagues at the Labor Department to this historic event, a Presidential Briefing on America at Work. Mr. President, we will be discussing today a wide range of issues that touch the lives of every working American and that this audience and their fellow employees have worked so hard and so ably to address. As we discuss these matters, America is a progressive nation under your leadership that enjoys great economic vitality. And as you can see by our first chart, we're as proud as you of the 59-months expansion. And I'd point out additionally that the average peacetime expansion has only been 27 months. This economic growth has meant so much to so many of our citizens in terms of improving every aspect of their lives at work, at home, and in their communities. To focus on these issues and the unfinished business before us, we are pleased to have several distinguished people who know well where we are and where we need to go to promote further the opportunity for working America. It is my pleasure to introduce our distinguished panelists, Mr. George French, owner of a small but growing business in Baltimore, Mr. James Duffy, President, Communications Network, and Broadcasting Division of ABC Capital Cities Incorporated, Mr. Roger Simarad, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training, and Ms. Shirley Dennis, Director of the Labor Department's Women's Bureau. And of course, Secretary of Labor Bill Brock certainly needs no introduction. Now, ladies and gentlemen, before turning the reins over to Secretary Brock, it is my privilege and honor to present President Reagan who has some opening comments. Mr. President. Well, Dennis, thank you very much. And good morning to all of you. I'm looking forward to hearing what each of you, from each of you, and what you think both of the private sector and what government can do to make sure that our 59 months of growth and job creation continue. You should all be proud of the nearly 14 million jobs that we've created since the expansion began. The trend toward higher education requirements is striking since many of the new jobs created between now and the year 2000 will require educational backgrounds beyond the high school level. It's interesting, or I'm interested in hearing you and your thoughts on this and another challenge facing us in the year 2000 will be the demographic changes in the workforce and additional numbers of women, minorities, immigrants. And we need to make sure that our markets remain to keep the dynamic flexibility that has served us so well in creating new job opportunities. I've always been a firm believer in the power of the people that when we get the government out of their way problems can be solved more quickly and more efficiently. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts and all of you on how the private sector can rise to meet the challenges that are facing the workforce now and in the future. And that's enough from me because it's time for me to listen and learn from each of you. My thank you, Mr. President. I think I might add at the beginning that a lot of prayers have been answered with regard to Nancy and we're very grateful to see her back home with you. Coming in, the President met three Department of Labor employees who were responsible for saving a little girl named Jessica and I think that should be noted there. Right here on the front lawn we're very proud of these men who work for all the people of this country and particularly for the Department of Labor. So we welcome you all here. We really are so honored, Mr. President, to have you with us today. We're delighted to report to you on what's been achieved for the working men and women of this nation under your leadership to brief you on our plans to continue building a secure, prosperous and competitive America. I should note at the beginning we've had good news again this morning. The GMP figures just came out and we had a growth rate of 3.8% in the third quarter which is the highest rate we've had since back early this year and even of equal or maybe greater importance. The inflation rate was down to 0.2% and that's pretty spectacular. So we're making progress. Any time you want to come in you're welcome to do that. Oh no, I'm waiting for all of you to stop. Your strong leadership, your exuberant pride and belief in this country and its values, you're determined to reinvigorate this nation's economy have inspired all we have done. There used to be a saying I'm sure you've heard and are familiar with, as DiMaggio goes, so go the Yankees. I think the same thing can be said about working people in America. If workers and their families are doing well, then this nation is on the right course. Under your leadership, the working men of this country and women have made enormously productive strides. I want to just note as Dennis did the first chart up here which shows the continued expansion and then take you to a second one, if you will, Dennis, that points out that we have a record number of Americans in the labor force. More Americans are working than at any time in our history, almost 115 million and maybe the most important statistic of all, the highest percentage of Americans are working that have ever worked in the history of the Republic. And that's really fundamental. We have an unprecedented economic expansion about to enter its sixth year. It has spared the creation of 14 million new jobs, bringing unemployment to 5.8 percent, the lowest rate in this decade. No nation anywhere in the world can even come close to matching our job creation record. The world looks at us and they talk about the great American job machine. And that's what we have here. It is spectacular as you'll be hearing these jobs are not just any jobs, they are very good jobs. Perhaps most significant and encouraging of all, Mr. President, is that under your leadership an expanding economy has not been synonymous with an inflated economy, as it has been in the past. As I noted, the inflation rate is at 2.2 percent in September. In 1986, it was 1.1 percent. And that is a phenomenal record. It's the lowest level in almost a quarter of a century. That means American workers and their families have been able to reap the benefits of the gains they have earned rather than see them diminished by continuing inflation. But neither the Labor Department nor the nation can rest on our laurels. Much remains to be done to assure that this country maintains its tradition of leadership in a world that is changing at a dizzying pace. So this morning, in addition to reviewing where we've been and what we've accomplished, we will also spend a few minutes examining the challenges in my head and what we hope to do to meet them. I'd like to turn our program now over to our four panelists. The first one is like a lot of Americans who have never met a president of the United States. George French is a small business man. His business started, I think, in 1979. And it has had substantial growth during the current economic expansion. He will discuss what the success of our economic policy has meant to small business and what small business means to America. George. Thank you, Secretary Rod. We had roofed trusses, floor trusses and wall panels. Our next adventure was to go into interior trim, exterior trim and that gave us a complete house package. Since this time, since that, our next our next acquisition was a truss plant and retail lumber yard in Delaware. I wonder how many boys we have now. Well, I am very proud to tell you that we have 275 employees with a payroll of $80,000 per week with growth sales of approximately $20 million a year. Our projections for physical year in 1986 is 150 to 500 employees with over 30 million in sales. We have worked force 2000 through youth 2000 and ultimately Mr. President, we we're just glad to have you here and we'd be real pleased to have your reaction to what you've heard or ask any questions you like if you wish this morning. Well, Bill, thank you and thank all of you very much. It's been a great pleasure and certainly a learning experience to be here at the Labor Department. Let me just begin, though, if I can with a special thank thanks to Secretary Brock who's leaving all of us. Bill, you've been a dedicated public servant and a trusted advisor and we'll miss you in the cabinet. I was really smart. I'd stop right there. You're doing fine. Well, we've been briefed here by several people and very well and I'll try to keep my remarks short. Although whenever I do run over I remember a quip of President Eisenhower's to paraphrase him. He said that one good thing about being president is that nobody can tell you when to stop talking. But I had a lesson some years ago I've related it many times but not for some years about the importance of brevity in a speech or remarks. It was taught to me by the Reverend Bill Alexander of Oklahoma. He was present when I made a speech and he later told me this experience of his, his first experience as a clergyman and I've always figured there was a connection between his story and my speech. He said that he had just been newly ordained, not have a church, but was invited to preach at an evening service of a little country church in Oklahoma. He stood up in the pulpit and there was an empty church except for one lone little man sitting out there in all the empty pews. So after the opening prayer he went down and he said, my friend, I'm just a young preacher getting started and you're the only member of the congregation that showed up, what do you think? Should I go through with it? The fellow said, well, I don't know about that. I'm not here in Oklahoma, but I do know this. If I loaded up a truckload of hay, took it out in the prairie and only one cow showed up I'd feed her. Well, Bill took that as a cue and an hour and a half later said, I'm in. I went down and said, my friend, you seem to have stuck with me and like I told you, I'm a young preacher getting started. What did you think? Well, he said like I told you I don't know about that sort of thing, but I do know this. If I loaded up a truckload of hay, took it out in the prairie and only one cow showed up. I sure as hell wouldn't give her the whole load. But I would like to talk to you today about a new term that I recently read in the newspaper and it's called job power. And it comes from an article in the Christian Science Monitor that ran with the headline employers, pound streets for young and choosy workers. Well, they can afford to be choosy, the article says, because jobs in their area in the Middle Atlantic are plentiful. They quote one high school student named Tom who would turn down a $5 an hour internship at the courthouse to take an $8 to $10 an hour job doing construction. Everyone can get a job, says young Tom, you just pick your first choice. Sometimes you don't even have to go looking for a job. The jobs come looking for you. Megan, a high school junior tells of how she was sitting on the front steps of the library. When a man from the local shoe store came by and needed someone to work for him, Megan declined the offer because she already had another job. Well, those are only two anecdotal examples. Not every section of the country shares in this good fortune. In Texas, for instance, teenage unemployment tops 20%. One expert in demographics predicts that it's only a matter of time before the experiences of young people like Megan and Tom spread across the entire country. The high employment today that's found in New England, California and the mid-Atlantic are, he says, the wave of the future. Well, as employers will be the first to tell you, the problem isn't just finding people. It's finding people with the necessary skills. And that's what Bill Brock is talking about when he refers to workforce 2000, that the workers between now and the turn of the century have the skills requisite for the jobs being created. The reason we could celebrate job power today is our growing economy and economy liberated by tax cuts, deregulation and declining inflation. This month of October marks the 59th straight month in our economic expansion. And as of November, we'll have broken all U.S. records for the longest peacetime expansion in history. Not only is it the longest, it's one of the strongest, too. Since we can, our gross national product has risen some 20%, of comparable expansions. We've been creating jobs at an average rate of almost a quarter of a million a month, as Bill told us for a total of nearly the 14 million new jobs as you've seen. And we're not just creating more jobs, we're creating better jobs. According to Labor Department data, nearly two-thirds of the new jobs have been in the higher paying occupations, and we've seen that here now in the charts with only 12% in lower scale occupations. Over 90% of the jobs are full time. In short, we're talking about continuing job creation with jobs that are better paying, more challenging, safer and more rewarding. So much for the so-called McJobbs thesis. One of the groups that has benefited most from this job surge is, as we've been told, the black community. Employment, blacks has increased as employment of whites. Since 1982, the real income of black families, as we've been told, has increased almost 40% faster than white family income. And the share of black families in the highest income bracket is up by over 70%. This August, the percentage of blacks employed was the highest on record, as was the percentage of all Americans employed. Economics columnist Warren Brooks looked at this record and concluded that, and I'll quote on every front, jobs, income, even household wealth, this 1981 through 1986 has been the best five economic years in black history. Well, so far I've concentrated on employment, but that's only one indication of the strong and vital economy that we have today. I could talk about how inflation is holding low and steady, how real household income is how manufacturing productivity is surged ahead well above the post-war average, and industrial production is outpaced Europe and Japan. All of this is concrete evidence of an economy that is strong and fundamentally sound. It's an economy judged in pure economic terms that has a very bright future before it, a future of growth, low inflation, and high employment. We've seen in the last week, however, that there's real concern on Wall Street. The recent turbulence in the stock market suggests that those who are investing in the future of our economy are worried that something, some roadblock, may be put in the way of that future. The market is constantly reacting to an almost infinite flow of information. There may have been hundreds of factors affecting the uneasiness on Wall Street, but I think it's appropriate to single out some of the more domestic, and I think it's fair to say primarily political in origin. I say political because they have more to do with the actions and lack of action of the government than with American business people, entrepreneurs, and workers. As I said, the business of America is sound, the economy is strong. Those who have to make the decision on whether or not to invest in the future of our economy see some very disturbing signs on Capitol Hill. For one, a dangerously protectionist trade bill working its way through conference. If passed, that bill would threaten a spiraling trade war and could very well bring our economic expansion to an end. And if it comes to that, I'll have no choice but to veto it. The devastating effect on the devastating effect on employment, on all those jobs I mentioned, would only be a part of the effect of protectionist trade legislation. The roadblocks that could be thrown in the way of our economic expansion, Wall Street knows protectionism is one of the worst. At the same time, we see a Congress that's unable to get control of deficit spending. It backed away from its Graham Rudman promises and there are many who, while refusing to cut spending, insist on increasing taxes. The disruption in our markets is sending a signal loud and clear to get our economic house in order. And that's why last night I called for the bipartisan leadership in Congress to meet with me on Tuesday to arrange the process for reducing the federal deficit. And as I said, I will listen to them, but they must listen to me on the need to send a clear signal that spending will be restrained. And I'm asking every member of Congress who agrees that we should reject protectionist legislation, every member who agrees that tax increases are not a solution to join with me in showing our support for America and her economic future. As I've said, I think the markets are reacting more to the actions and inactions of government than to the deficit itself, which has been shrinking down nearly 30% since the last fiscal year. But while that deficit exists, the uneasiness will remain. And that's why we're going back to Congress and in light of what's going to happen. We're going to double our efforts to cut the deficit by cutting away overspending. Congress has made no effort to seriously restrain domestic spending. Just freezing spending at last year's levels would yield substantial deficit reduction. Overspending endangers our economy. And each one of those cherished special interest programs is going to have to justify itself as much as possible. The story of this historic 59-month expansion is first and foremost as you've heard up here today a study of individual achievement of the historic struggle of, or the heroic struggle of entrepreneurs, the hard work and dedication of laborers, the ingenuity and creativity of our business community, and just the plain raw power of American industry. All that's asked of us is to get in their way to keep the business environment as free and as stable as possible. Freedom and stability. That's all our economy needs. That's all Americans need to keep this economy growing well into the next decade. A little example of that was sent to be by a man the other day who's an eminent scholar, speaks fluent Russian. He was on a trip to Moscow. And he told me that in the cab driving to the airport he had a young cab driver there. Got into conversation with him. The young man was getting educated going to school. But driving a cab to make that possible. And the scholar said well what are your plans? What do you intend to do? The young man said I haven't made up my mind yet. Well by coincidence when he got to Moscow and got in a cab there he had a young cab driver. And speaking Russian he got into a conversation with him and found out he too was going to school as well as working. And he said well what do you intend to do? To be. The young man said they haven't told me yet. That's the difference. That's why freedom is the most important thing. But now before I go there are a few special American workers that I want to mention. Recently the country was riveted as you know all of us to the story of tiny Jessica McClure. And I think that we all said prayers of thanks when that story had a happy ending. And I think we're also very thankful in our hearts for the generous people who worked around the clock through fatigue past exhaustion to save little Jessica. And of course I think we all are that three employees of the Department of Labor who worked for the Mind Safety and Health Administration are here with us today having done their job so well. Wayne Knack is the manager of the Southwestern division when he heard of Jessica's plight he called on the two best people he could think of Dave Lilly and Sid Kirk both experienced hard rock minors working closely together they directed the rescue operation drilling a hole parallel to the well and then digging a shaft across to reach Jessica. In fact Dave Lilly chipped away by hand the last few inches of rock to make the first physical contact with little Jessica. I know another midlander Vice President Bush has awarded you a certificate of recognition and Wayne and Dave and Sid I think you've understood here already this morning that we're all very proud of you. And now I just close with one more little episode. I received a letter the other day from a gentleman that pointed out something out I hadn't thought of a subject that I think all of us are aware of however this man in his letter said that you can go to live in France but you can't become a Frenchman you can go to live in Japan but you cannot become Japanese or turkey and not become a Turk or Greece and become a Greek but he said anybody in the entire world can come to this country and become an American. Thank you very much. President Chu you do us great honor. So did the three men that stood up and so did the people in this auditorium I think it's important for me to say that I have never found a group of individuals who are more committed, more devoted, more talented and more strong in their belief in this country than the people of this department they share your vision of an America of opportunity for happy working man and woman they will continue to devote their best efforts to fulfilling it and I think what we've tried to say today is that we really believe here that this country can do almost anything if we do it together. When we have Jim and George representing in the private sector these employees here we're saying that this country really has been remarkably best not by its natural wealth but by its people and to the extent that we commit ourselves to extending opportunity to all in this country we do justice to that which we're about. We thank you very much for coming and we bless you. Wish you all.