INDIANAPOLIS — There are more jobs in the United States than there are trained workers to fill them, said Vice President Mike Pence Wednesday.

Pence returned to his home state of Indiana to speak at the Strada Education Network National Symposium in Indianapolis. Strada is an organization dedicated to assisting students in finding the right opportunities in post-secondary education by providing financial support and other help.

Pence said those post-high school educational opportunities must include avenues to closing what he calls the “skills gap” in the U.S.

“We’ve seen nearly good-paying 500,000 manufacturing jobs being created all across the country,” Pence said. “Workers in the skills-trades are in higher and higher demand as those jobs are being created.”

But the bad news in that regard is that there is a shortage of trained workers to fill those jobs. The good news, he said, is that both the White House and Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb are pushing to make sure the government is doing all it can to help get workers trained and hired.

 

“We worked in my tenure and now under Governor Eric Holcomb to expand career and technical education to every high school in the state of Indiana and to promote partnerships with local businesses,” said Pence.

“Indiana, for instance, has seen record low unemployment,” he continued. “In fact, the lowest poverty rate in more than ten years. One reason for that success is that we have a president and Indiana has a governor that has made getting Hoosiers the skills they need a priority.”

Pence made the speech only hours after one of his top aides testified in the House impeachment inquiry against President Trump.