To the Congress of the United States:
As required by section 107 of the Manpower Development and Training Act of 1962, as amended, and by section 605 of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973, I am sending to Congress the twelfth annual Manpower Report of the President.
When I signed the CETA into law on December 28, 1973, I expressed considerable gratification with the new legislation, noting that it represented "a significant shift in intergovernmental responsibilities." The Manpower Report I am sending you today provides important new information concerning the step-by-step implementation of this long-needed transfer of manpower program planning and design responsibilities to units of government which are best equipped to measure and meet local needs. From now on, State and local governments will be able to decide for themselves what kind of manpower services they require, for how long and in what quantity--and I am convinced that they will be able to provide such services more efficiently and more promptly than was possible under the preceding system of federally-managed categorical programs.
Among other important topics discussed in this report is the energy shortage and the measures taken by the Department of Labor and other agencies of Government to minimize the temporary disruptions of the labor market caused by the energy crisis. The report reveals that, in spite of these disruptions, 1973 was a good year for labor. The number of those employed as of December numbered nearly 86 million. In the past 2 years alone, over 4. 1 million Americans entered the labor force, including significant numbers of women and younger workers. While the unemployment rate has moved upward temporarily after many months of steady decline, we should not overlook the sizable increases during the same time-span in the number of new jobs and newly employed Americans.
For the convenience of the Congress, this edition of the Manpower Report brings together in one volume an overview of numerous manpower activities carried out under separate legislative mandates.
RICHARD NIXON
The White House,
April 22, 1974.
Note: The message is printed in the report entitled "Manpower Report of the President-Including Reports by the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Transmitted to the Congress April 1974" (Government Printing Office, 387 PP.).
Richard Nixon, Message to the Congress Transmitting Annual Manpower Report of the President. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/256428