Roy Blunt: “I wish to talk about the economy today, something that most of us are talking about when we are home, and for good…”

“I wish to talk about the economy today, something that most of us are talking about when we are home, and for good reason. Yesterday the Labor Department announced that our economy hit a milestone that we never hit before in the time that we have been measuring these two things at the same time. There are now more jobs available in the United States than there are job seekers. When I was in Missouri last week, we did a number of events all over the State. At that time, I was confident that in the 12 States in the middle of the country, there were more jobs than people looking for jobs. That was news. But even bigger news is the news that was announced yesterday, that there are 6.7 million job openings and there aren't 6.7 million people on unemployment. In fact, the unemployment rate is 3.8 percent. It matches the lowest number we have seen in 50 years. The last time numbers were this low, in fact, was during the Vietnam war, when many young men were being drafted into the military. That was the last time we had an unemployment rate this low. Everybody understands--and they should understand--that the 6.7 million jobs don't necessarily have 6.7 million people ready for exactly the jobs that are out there. That should encourage us, among other things, to be thinking about what we need to be doing to make sure that people are either prepared for jobs or they have the skills to allow them quickly to become prepared for the jobs that are available.…”