While it’s true that the U.S. unemployment rate enjoys a historic low, too many Americans remain out of work.
Since President Donald Trump implemented the America First agenda, jobless rates have fallen as low as 3.6 percent. In 2019, they have remained under 4 percent since February. But the problem is that Washington, D.C., elites would rather squabble over hot-button issues that get them soundbites on cable news than help. But First Daughter Ivanka Trump is doing something about Americans who have been left behind.
It would be easy for the Trump Administration to rest on its surging economic success and historic low unemployment. But that’s not what the administration is doing. In July 2018, President Trump signed an executive order to help retrain workers so they could rejoin the surging economy.
“The president’s call to action for the pledge has become a full-blown national movement,” Ivanka Trump said. She has been pushing the retraining policy with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “Today, we celebrate reaching 12 million pledged commitments.”
In the early days of the Trump Administration, Ivanka stepped up to lead the charge on worker retraining and apprenticeships. The president called the initiative the “Pledge to America’s Workers,” and it recently enjoyed a one-year anniversary.
“Well, thank you very much, Ivanka,” President Trump said. “And I think I’m allowed to be proud of my daughter. But the fact is that she’s worked so hard at this. And this started just about from the beginning, and she had lots of options to do certain things. All she knew is she wanted to help people, and it really is that she settled down into jobs and training.”
The Pledge to America’s Workers initiative has enlisted the cooperation of major corporations across the country to offer retraining programs that would put everyday Americans back to work. The facts are that despite consistently good jobs reports, there are reportedly 7.3 positions available in the U.S. and only 6 million people out of work, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. That fact seems counterintuitive and begs the question: how is it possible?
According to resources such as the National Skills Coalition, upwards of 80 percent of emerging jobs require some form of retraining or education. Since Ivanka began leveraging her vast business relationships on behalf of everyday Americans, approximately 300 companies have come forward promising to help people earn the skills to fill their vacancies.
“In today’s thriving economy we must aim for inclusive growth by creating pathways for all Americans to get the tools and skills they need for rewarding careers,” Ivanka said. “As jobs evolve, it is incumbent on companies to invest in their current and future workers.”
The manufacturing sector has seen a marked increase in output and companies returning to the U.S. following the Trump Administration’s signature Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The National Association of Manufacturers recently pledged to retrain 1.2 million.
“This is really just a start. We think that’s a conservative number,” the association’s CEO Jay Timmons said. “We have 500,000 open jobs in manufacturing today.”
Organizations such a defense contractor Lockheed Martin have pledged to train workers and create apprenticeships despite the fact it’s a premier organization that hires college graduates and industry experts with ease. Lockheed’s recent commitment to train 8,000 is no small win, considering it simply doesn’t have to make such an effort.
These are obviously the fruits of Ivanka’s one-on-one efforts with business decision-makers. Many of these captains of industry and the workers who benefited from the initiative gathered at a White House event to celebrate one year of working together.
“And I would like to recognize so many other great companies and workers from across the nation who have joined us here today,” Ivanka reportedly said. “Employees from Apple, from Samsung, from Siemens, and so many other great businesses. So, if you could all stand, we’d love to give you a round of applause.”
Ivanka Trump, a 37-year-old wealthy businesswoman, has not taken a penny of taxpayer money to work on behalf of those workers left behind since her father took office.
