Proclamation 5724—National Job Skills Week, 1987

America's remarkable ability to create new jobs attests to the ingenuity and vitality of our people and to the fundamental strength and effectiveness of the free market economy. More Americans are working now than ever, and millions of new jobs are being created each year, including many by small business. Our observance of National Job Skills Week reminds us that training for new job skills is of critical importance to our economy and to our entire society.

The Department of Labor's Workforce 2000 study indicates a continuing vital need for job skills training. Trends suggest that the rate of labor force growth will diminish significantly and that the pool of workers, particularly at the entry level, will be smaller. This situation may afford unique opportunities for people from groups that historically have not entered the labor market. It challenges schools, business, community-based organizations, and government at all levels—Federal, State, and local—to continue to train people in the skills they will need to find and keep good jobs as the requirements of the workplace change. And it reminds us to pay careful attention to the implications of changes underway in the nature of the workplace and the composition of the work force.

To focus national attention on job training's role in maintaining a competitive work force, the Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 72, has designated the week of October 11 through October 17, 1987, as "National Job Skills Week" and authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this week.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week of October 11 through October 17, 1987, as National Job Skills Week, and I urge all Americans and interested groups to observe this week with appropriate programs and activities.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this eighth day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twelfth.

RONALD REAGAN