The initiative, which Obama will detail at a National League
of Cities conference in Washington, will include "collaboration
with local government leaders - working with each other and with
national employers - that are committed to expanding access to
tech jobs in their communities," the White House statement said
on Sunday.
The statement added there were more than 500,000 job openings in
such fields as software development and cybersecurity and that
the average salary in jobs requiring information technology
skills was 50 percent higher than the average private-sector job
in the United States.
"Helping more Americans train and connect to these jobs is a key
element of the President’s middle-class economics agenda," the
White House statement said.
The Obama administration has been promoting its efforts to boost
the middle class and increase opportunity as the economy grows
and unemployment falls.
Nonfarm payrolls increased 295,000 last month, the Labor
Department said on Friday, as the U.S. unemployment rate dropped
two-tenths of a percentage point to 5.5 percent in February, the
lowest level since May 2008.
(Reporting by Peter Cooney; Editing by Eric Walsh)
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