Secretary of Labor Martin Walsh tackles the ongoing unemployment issue in a recent interview with rolling out.
What would you suggest that young people focus on to make sure that they are getting the right skill set? What’s the skill set of the future?
First and foremost, I want the young people going back to school this year, particularly the high schoolers and the kids going to college, to take care of themselves. I also want you to understand that you have a president and vice president that care about you, President Biden’s pieces of legislation called the bipartisan infrastructure bill, and the build back better agenda are about creating pathways for young people and for people in this country to get a job and get in the middle class. The president wants to win the future — the future of technology, the future of innovation, the future of manufacturing. You are the future, and you will help us continue to win the future.
How can the Black community actually get employers to think twice about not hiring a Black person?
I don’t think the Black community is the focus here, we have to go out and create better pathways and better opportunities. We added 943,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate in this country fell to five percent. The unemployment in the Black community fell a whole percentage point, which is usually a great celebration, but we went from 9.2% to 8.2%. We still have 8.2% of a Black community employed, where the rest of the country is 5.6%. As we think about these plans, and the infrastructure [plan] is moving forward, we need to make sure that young Black people get an opportunity on those jobs and make sure they have opportunities for job training. We have to make sure that as we come back from the pandemic, that it’s an equitable recovery, and equitable means across the board.
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