Ivanka Trump urged out-of-work Americans to “find something new” Tuesday as part of a new jobs initiative designed to tout the benefits of skills training and career paths that don’t require a college degree.
“This initiative is about challenging the idea the traditional 2 and 4 yr college is the only option to acquire the skills needed to secure a job,” President Trump’s eldest daughter and White House adviser said in a Twitter post. “This work has never been more urgent.”
Whether you’re entering the workforce for the 1st time or need to pivot and retrain due to Covid-19, explore all your options to acquire in-demand job skills at https://t.co/dRZMdZyON4 https://t.co/9kf5eANSib
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) July 14, 2020
The campaign comes with the country in the midst of a public health crisis that has upended entire industries and kicked off a recession that has sent the nation’s unemployment rate shooting above 11 percent. The nation currently has 5.4 million job openings, according to the Labor Department, which is not nearly enough for the roughly 18 million Americans who are officially unemployed and the 33 million who are currently receiving unemployment benefits.
Many saw the campaign as insensitive given the suffering of Americans whose livelihoods disappeared as the pandemic forced companies to shutter or sharply curtail operations. And for many, Ivanka Trump — the daughter of a billionaire and a multimillionaire in her own right — is the wrong person to speak to the challenges of finding a job.
“Go find something new in the middle of this pandemic while no one is hiring! Perhaps your father will hire you!” Jessica Huseman of ProPublica said in a Twitter post.
Oh my god. Fits perfectly with their belief that the real problem is people don’t want to work not that there’s a raging pandemic and massive business closure/job loss!!! https://t.co/ZElfPMe0cS
— Krystal Ball (@krystalball) July 14, 2020
The campaign’s website lists several “rising careers” that the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects will see job growth. But many of the positions are in lines of work that President Trump has railed against explicitly or indirectly.
Among the roles is wind turbine technician, which is projected to grow 57 percent through 2028. Yet the president has repeatedly ranted about wind turbines, describing them as “monsters” that botch the visual aesthetics of farms and fields. Research has shown turbines significantly reduce carbon emissions. And wind energy has one of the smallest carbon footprints of any electricity-generating power source.
Another long-term career prospect the website recommends is contact tracer: the public health workers who race against time to reach people who may have been exposed to covid-19 and other contagious diseases, steering them to get tested and to quarantine. President Trump has repeatedly contradicted the public health guidance of his own government, which infectious-disease experts say sends mixed messages that have made it harder to slow the spread of the virus. So far, 3.3 million people in the United States have been infected and at least 132,000 people have died of covid-19.
The nonprofit Ad Council created the “find something new” campaign in partnership with more than 20 organizations, including Apple, IBM, AT&T, Walmart, Lockheed Martin and the Business Roundtable. A corresponding website links to education and training options.
The initiative stems from the efforts of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, a group President Trump established in 2018, to advise the government on ways to improve education and training for American workers. The board is co-chaired by Ivanka Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
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