senator Amy Klobuchar smiles during a tech hearing
Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) speaks during a hearing on June 15, 2021.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
  • Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said kids should go into jobs where there are workforce shortages.
  • Klobuchar said the country faces a shortage of "plumbers, electricians, construction workers." 
  • "We need people, we need kids to go into jobs that we have shortages," she said.  

While addressing issues with the economy and touting the Build Back Better Act, Sen. Amy Klobuchar said recruiting kids into the workforce will combat shortages. 

"We've got workforce issues, and that's why this Build Back Better Act is so important," Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, said on ABC News' This Week

"We need people, we need kids to go into jobs that we have shortages. We don't have a shortage of marketing degrees, we have a shortage of health care workers. We have a shortage of plumbers, electricians, construction workers, and this bill puts us on the right path," Klobuchar said. 

Klobuchar said addressing key areas of the country's infrastructure will improve the economy, touting the $1 trillion infrastructure bill that President Joe Biden signed earlier this month. The law allocates federal money to the public-works system to repair roads and bridges, renovate ports, replace lead pipes, and expand broadband access, Insider's Joseph Zeballos-Roig reported

Klobuchar also touted key benefits of the $2 trillion social spending bill that passed out of the House earlier this month. The bill, which faces an uphill climb in the Senate, includes universal pre-K, childcare subsidies, monthly cash payments for many American families, as well as Medicare expansion and federal prescription-drug price controls. 

"To me, that's what we do about the problem right in front of us, which is to have the backs of the American people. That's our top priority," Klobuchar said. 

Read the original article on Business Insider