Results of Federal Stimulus Spending on Infrastructure Construction Projects
Yesterday in a piece titled Stimulus Saves Construction Jobs: House Panel, Reuters' Lisa Lambert reported on where the federal government's stimulus money is going in the construction industry and who's using most of it. The highlights of the highlights: - Jobs created or preserved in July '09 by infrastructure projects increased by more than 50% over June '09
- According to a U.S. House of Representative report, water, highway, and public transportation projects "created or sustained" 77,470 jobs in July '09 compared to just under 50,000 in June '09
- Illinois accounts for almost 20% of jobs created or sustained - 15,388. We need it here in Illinois. Our unemployment rate was 10.4% in July '09, a whole percentage point above the national rate of 9.4%
- California got $787B and reported 10,146 jobs created or sustained
- Texas reports using stimulus money to create or sustain 5,953 jobs
- Wyoming led the nation in the number of projects (a) out to bid, (b) under contract, and (c) underway
- Hawaii is slowest in processing projects
Associated General Contractors of America (the "AGC") CEO Stephen Sandherr said on Monday that while the states may be starting work, cities are lagging.
"It is difficult to understand why more communities aren't moving to
put their stimulus funds to work while they are experiencing these
kinds of job losses"
According to AGC analysis, city
construction employment declined in 319 of the largest U.S.
metropolitan areas in July '09, while increasing in only 11.
- The U.S. Labor Department reported that the construction industry shed 76,000 jobs in July '09.
- According to a federal report on construction spending released on Tuesday, money put into public capital works dropped 0.7% in July '09
- After rising 3.1% in June '09, state and local construction
spending fell by 0.8% in July '09. Highway and street spending fell 1%
and overall transportation fell 0.4%
- July '09 educational spending
was down 1.3 compared to June '09
Lisa's writes regularly for Reuters on government stimulus spending and economic recovery efforts. Hopefully she'll soon join Twitter so we can all follow her and see her new work sooner.
Construction Law Today is a legal blog about construction contracts, disputes, finance, and the people whose job it is to deal with them.
