President Nixon signed the Emergency Employment Act on the 12th of July 1971. The act was aimed at alleviating the layoffs in the aerospace and defense related industries. The Emergency Employment Act would effectively create 150,000 jobs over the following two years in such areas as environment, health, education, public safety, crime prevention, prisons, transportation, park maintenance, recreation, rural development, and sanitation. It would also provide for job training to move workers from public service jobs into the private sector and to upgrade the skills of Americans working in low-paying jobs.
The Emergency Employment Act was designed to assist returning veterans in moving back into the labor force and would aid America’s youth in acquiring jobs as well. The new legislation was greatly anticipated as it was expected to bring speedy relief to the American people. It would also make available additional funds for cities with continuing high unemployment rates.
However, President Nixon explicitly noted that the jobs created by this act were not intended to be permanent but instead were meant facilitate the creation of additional non-subsidized careers with the prospect of advancement. RN was also hopeful that Congress would appropriate the full $1 billion that had been authorized by the act.
President Nixon’s administration had also strongly urged the passage of manpower revenue sharing, under which $2 billion would go to State and local governments in the first year for manpower training and the creation of additional transitional jobs. Coupled with RN’s welfare reform program, these legislative successes would help hundreds of thousands of Americans reenter the workforce and raise the standard of living for hundreds of thousands more.