Message to the Congress Transmitting Annual Manpower Report of the President.

To the Congress of the United States:

In a recent special message to the Congress¹ which forms the first part of this volume, I urged prompt consideration and enactment of a Manpower Revenue Sharing Act of 1971, a long overdue and fundamental reform of the country's manpower programs.

¹ See Item 86

This second Manpower Report of my administration provides factual background for this recommendation. A major feature of the report recounts the strenuous efforts we have made over the past two years to coordinate and strengthen the present multiplicity of manpower programs. Nevertheless, they remain much too rigid and narrowly focused to meet differing and changing local needs. Transfer of responsibility for planning and administration to State and local governments is essential if the programs are to become adequately responsive to the problems of local areas and their people.

The report analyzes in depth the critical employment and manpower utilization problems of urban labor markets and of rural areas. Because these problems differ in nature and intensity from State to State and community to community, there is no single, simple national solution. While job opportunities have expanded more in the suburbs, the central cities generally have not lost jobs and most cities have had some employment increase. The problem is that the inner city residents are confronted simultaneously by a number of obstacles--poor education, lack of skill training, bias in hiring practices. Overcoming these multiple, self-reinforcing barriers to employment is the hard challenge to imaginative local leadership in best using shared manpower revenues.

The States face equally challenging human resources utilization problems in our rural areas. Continued decline in farm employment is borne on the wings of ever increasing farm productivity. Development of employment opportunities in our rural communities is vital, both to improve the quality of life for rural residents and to stem the tide of migration to our already crowded cities.

Another aspect of the labor market developed analytically in this report is the effects on employment of government purchases of goods and services. The shifting "mix" of government buying has far-reaching implications for the pattern of employment offered in the job market. The expected rapid growth in State and local government services over the decade of the 1970s offers real opportunity for improving job prospects for our disadvantaged fellow citizens.

As I said in .transmitting last year's Manpower Report, full opportunity for all citizens remains a central goal for this Nation. The present report is concerned with the progress we have already made toward this goal and the distance we still have to travel. The report provides important new information clarifying the obstacles in the way and pointing to the new legislation and other public and private action essential to overcome them.

RICHARD NIXON

The White House

April 7, 1971