Service sector jobs, accounting for over 80% of U.S. employment, range from engineers and accountants, to marketing executives and call-center employees.  By making smart investments and retraining our current and talented workforce, we can foster greater economic growth for America.

Currently under federal law, service sector workers do not have equal access to federal retraining benefits as manufacturing sector workers.  This is both unfair and shortsighted, which is why I’ve introduced legislation to end this inequity by expanding Trade Adjustment Assistance to service sector workers.

The current Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program, established in the early 1960s, was designed to help those people who lose their jobs due to offshore competition. Currently, the program covers only those in the manufacturing sector because, traditionally, this was the sector that was most vulnerable to overseas competition. According to Labor Department data, however, 543,000 jobs were lost in the past three years in the information/technology sector alone.

The legislation I have introduced would give service sector workers access to benefits they need to get back on their feet and re-employed, including income support, health care tax credits and job training.  Service sector workers deserve equal benefits, and this legislation will make it fair and simple.

This expansion of job retraining benefits is a wise use of taxpayer dollars and has worked in the past.  In 1997, for example, workers from Simpson Industrial received TAA benefits.  More recently, workers from the Miller Brewing Company in Tumwater received assistance and close to 200 employees of the Hexcel Corporation in Kent who assembled or manufactured parts for airplanes have been the beneficiaries of this legislation.

My proposal is only a partial response to the current job loss trends. Late last year, I also asked the General Accounting Office (GAO) to conduct a study, to be completed this summer, on issues relating to offshore outsourcing of service jobs and the future of the U.S. job market.  The study will research the trends in offshore outsourcing, including its effect on aerospace engineering employees, customer service employees, and IT workers, as well as workers in other industries and those at the various levels of government.  The study will also identify the major benefits and risks of outsourcing, including strategies for addressing these risks. Finally, the study will provide policy recommendations for ensuring – and enhancing – U.S. competitiveness in the global marketplace.

The job retraining legislation I introduced is only the first step among many that we must take to maintain the U.S. economy’s competitive edge in the world market. We must develop policies, and enforce those policies, that will ensure the United States continues to have high-skilled, high-wage jobs.