������ý

������ý Marks Hispanic Heritage Month 2026

by ������ý | Sep 14, 2026 | News & Updates

IRVING, Texas, Sept. 15, 2026 — ������ý joins Americans across the country in observing Hispanic Heritage Month, the annual celebration held Sept. 15 through Oct. 15 that honors the history, culture, and contributions of Hispanic Americans. This year’s national theme, “Unidos, Somos Más” — “Together, We Are More” — is the operating principle of a nation that has drawn its strength from people of every origin building something together.

“That is the American triumph,” says Ignacio Salazar, president and chief executive officer of ������ý. “No other country has woven so many backgrounds, languages, talents and skills into a single fabric and made it stronger for the weaving. That is why the rest of the world studies the United States and tries to copy it. Hispanic Americans are among the threads that run through every part of that fabric, often in places the public never thinks to look,” he adds.

Consider the record. Mario Molina, a Mexican-born American and recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in chemistry, identified the ozone hole. Luis Alvarez, a Nobel scientist, explained that an asteroid impact ended the age of dinosaurs. Severo Ochoa won the Nobel Prize in medicine on how cells copy genetic information, and Lydia Villa-Komaroff led the research team that first coaxed bacteria into producing human insulin for diabetes treatment.

The same energy shows up on Main Street. The Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative reports the number of Latino-owned businesses in the United States grew 44 percent from 2018 to 2023. Nationally, the economic output of U.S. Latinos is at $4.4 trillion in 2024, the fourth-largest economy in the world and larger than Japan’s. The Latino labor force grew 5.5 percent that year, the strongest growth on record, and one in five people living in the United States is now Latino.

“Every one of those numbers is a person who got up this morning and went to work,” states Salazar. “A $4.4 trillion economy is not built by a few famous names. It is built by nurses and welders, teachers and truck drivers, coders and construction crews, and small-business owners who opened their doors before sunrise. Hispanic Heritage Month is the country pausing to say: We see you, and we are stronger because you are here.”

SER has been part of that story for 62 years, with a single, nonpartisan mission: preparing people for productive, unsubsidized employment through education, job skills training, and literacy. Through the SER Network of Affiliates, with more than 200 locations across America and Puerto Rico, SER serves more than 1 million people each year. Its measure of success has never changed: a job that supports a family and a career that supports a future.

“The best way to honor the people who broke barriers is to make sure the next generation never meets them,” Salazar said. “When we put a credential in someone’s hand and a paycheck in someone’s pocket, we are not helping one community. We are adding to what America can do. Unidos, somos más. Together, we are more. That has always been the whole point.”

������ý calls on all Americans to mark this month with action, not just applause: learn the stories of the Hispanic Americans who built and sustain their own hometowns; hire, mentor or train a worker looking for a foothold; and stand with the employers, educators and community organizations that keep the nation’s workforce strong. The fabric holds because every thread does its part.

SER NATIONAL MARKS A SOLEMN REMEMBRANCE OF 9/11, 25 YEARS LATER

by ������ý | Sep 10, 2026 | News & Updates

“Twenty-five years ago, hundreds of Americans went to work and never came home. Firefighters, police officers, flight crews, office workers, service workers, and men and women in uniform gave everything that day. Their families have carried that loss for a quarter century,” said Ignacio Salazar, President & CEO of ������ý. “We remember each of them not as a number but as a neighbor, a colleague, a parent and a friend whose life had purpose and whose absence is still felt.”

America has not forgotten, and it has not stood still. The country reformed how it protects its people, strengthened the bonds among its communities, and rediscovered a shared sense of purpose.

“At SER, we honor them by doing what they were doing that morning: showing up, working hard, and giving our best to one another,” Salazar said. For ������ý and the SER Network of Affiliates, that story of loss and the promise of rebuilding is also a story about work. Every year, the SER Network serves more than one million people seeking training, skills, employment, and a path to opportunity. The SER Network joins the nation in a solemn moment of remembrance and in a renewed commitment to the opportunity, unity, and strength that define America at its best.

“Today, I ask every American to do three things,” Salazar said. “Pause and remember the lives lost and the families who still grieve. Thank the first responders in your community who stand ready to run toward danger. And then go to work, in whatever form that takes, with the same devotion those we lost brought to theirs. Mentor someone. Hire someone. Train someone. Give of yourself to others, because that is how this country has always grown stronger, and that is how we keep faith with those who gave everything on September 11, 2001.”

SER NATIONAL CELEBRATES LABOR DAY AND THE ENDURING STRENGTH OF THE AMERICAN WORKER

by ������ý | Sep 6, 2026 | News & Updates

IRVING, Texas — ������ý today joins communities across the country in observing Labor Day and honoring the workers whose skill, discipline, and ingenuity have built the strongest economy on earth.

“Labor Day belongs to the people who build, teach, heal, harvest, code and create,” said Ignacio Salazar, President and CEO of ������ý. “Generation after generation, the American worker has met every change in the economy with skill, discipline, and determination. That capacity to adapt is the quiet engine of American prosperity, and it is the reason this Nation leads the world.”

This year’s observance carries singular meaning: It is the first Labor Day of the Nation’s 250th anniversary year. For two and a half centuries, American workers have adapted to every transformation of the economy, from the farm to the factory floor, from the assembly line to the digital age. Each generation has answered change with new ideas, new industries, and new prosperity.

“SER has spent 62 years proving a simple truth: When you invest in a worker, you strengthen a family, a community, and a country,” Salazar said. “New technologies are opening new industries at a pace no generation has seen before. Our task is to make certain that every American who is willing to work has the training to seize that opportunity, because America’s next chapter, like every chapter before it, will be written by its workers.”

SER has stood with the American worker through 62 years of that story. Founded in 1964, SER today serves more than 1 million people annually through the SER Network of Affiliates- 200 locations in more than 25 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico- delivering education, job training, and employment services to those ready to work.

As artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and new energy systems reshape the labor market, SER’s mission, preparing workers for the jobs of today and tomorrow, has never been more central to the national interest.

“This Labor Day, ������ý invites employers, educators, and civic and government leaders to partner with the SER Network of Affiliates to train the workforce their communities need,” says Salazar. “We encourage every individual seeking new skills or a new start to connect with a local SER Affiliate and explore opportunities that will continue to empower America, one worker at a time.”