[Excerpt] As the United States enters the last decade of the 20th Century, it finds its labor market in transformation. New forces are altering the demand for labor which are restructuring the employment patterns of the nation. At the same time, the labor supply is in a period of rapid growth in its size and unprecedented changes in its composition. Assessing the evolving situation, Secretary of Labor Elizabeth Dole proclaimed in late 1989 that the nation's labor force was "woefully inadequate to meet the changes that lie ahead."l Many other knowledgeable observers have expressed similar concerns. It is the nature of the work force itself that is emerging as the number one economic issue confronting the nation. The implications extend not only to the competitiveness of the economy and to the preparedness of the labor force but, given the multi-racial and multi-cultural composition of the population, to the prospects for the maintenance of domestic tranquility.