Now may not seem an opportune time to enter the workforce, but gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne disagrees.

“Though some people think we’re looking at the darkest times in America today, you will look back several years from now and know that this was your finest hour,” said Byrne, candidate for the Alabama governor’s 2010 election and former chief executive officer of the two-year college system.

Byrne addressed the more than 240 graduates at Troy University’s Summer Commencement ceremony Friday, encouraging rising workers to be a hope for hard economic times.

“We all know we are facing today some difficult economic times,” Byrne said.

“I don’t want to belittle that. But it also should be a time of great hope and should be a time of great hope for graduates today.”

Though the economy is experiencing a downturn, Byrne said this is nothing America has not overcome before.

And America, Byrne said, could only leave those times with individuals making the difference.

“When we get through the end of (those hard times), we are a different nation, a stronger nation,” Byrne said.

“It is a fact we have the most productive people the world has ever known. Our productivity is measured one person at a time.”

Byrne told graduates present, they were already on that road to being productive in this nation.

“By virtue of what you’ve done here, you have raised yourself up,” Byrne said.