$1 Trillion infrastructure to begin

METARs, get your shovels and hammers ready!

https://www.wsj.com/articles/labor-shortage-stymies-construc…

**Labor Shortage Stymies Construction Work as $1 Trillion Infrastructure Spending Kicks In**
**Contractors dangle an array of benefits — from signing bonuses to housing allowances - to attract and retain workers**
**By Julie Bykowicz, The Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2022**

**...**

**<snip nifty ways employers are trying to attract and keep construction workers>**

**Historically low U.S. unemployment, the economic rebound from Covid-19 and about $600 billion in transportation-specific funding expected from the roughly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law have combined to exacerbate existing employee shortages in the construction industry....**

**Associated General Contractors of America, which represents more than 27,000 construction companies, said publicly funded transportation projects are routinely coming in at least 20% higher than government officials anticipated because of added labor costs, as well as inflationary factors such as higher prices for fuel and raw materials.... the bipartisan infrastructure law’s peak impact will be in the fourth quarter of 2025, when there will be about 872,000 more jobs as a result of all the projects across the country....** [end quote]

Many older workers are retiring. Many younger workers aren’t attracted to the hard, sometimes dirty, work of construction. That’s leaving a real shortage.

Officials are looking to apprenticeship programs run by unions and partnerships between private companies and community colleges and high schools to develop skilled workers. Many young people who are guided into academic tracks for college even though they don’t really have a talent for scholarship would do much better in the short and long term to go into one of the building trades.

The huge amount of money for the infrastructure projects will help mitigate the coming recession. Many of the infrastructure projects built during the Great Depression are still in use today.

Wendy

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“the bipartisan infrastructure law’s peak impact will be in the fourth quarter of 2025, when there will be about 872,000 more jobs as a result of all the projects across the country… [end quote]”

That’s a lot of workers added in road construction, bridge building, etc. I’m not sure they won’t simply be robbing state and local companies of workers to work at higher wages for the infrastructure bill projects - assuming most are roads and highways and bridges, not turtle tunnels or saving wildlife.


Wendy: “Many of the infrastructure projects built during the Great Depression are still in use today.”

There are 100 state parks in TX that were built by the CCC - along with local gov’t help. The town usually donated the land, and a lake, campground, roads, lodge building, shelters were constructed. Back east same in many parks and along the Appalachian Trail, lodges and shelters on top of some mountains (My Greylock, MA) etc. The gov’t paid bare minimum wages at the time, not union based area wide high rates, though. Same for some National Parks and Monuments. Nearly all are still around.

I’d bet half of high school students aren’t anywhere near physically fit enough to work in construction - especially those from the suburbs.

It will be interesting to see if most of the ‘infrastructure’ projects are simply repurposed already planned state and local projects that would be done some time in the future awaiting funding, and will be done by state and local workers anyway, rather than ‘new’ projects requiring ‘new workers’. That was the result of the last ‘infrastructure’ bill 10 years ago.

t.

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Many older workers are retiring. Many younger workers aren’t attracted to the hard, sometimes dirty, work of construction. That’s leaving a real shortage.

People will shovel wet sand for the right price, but don’t expect them to do it at a poverty-level wage.

intercst

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The part that is both funny and sad.

A huge part of the current problems - ie inflation - could be solved.

With not too much complication.

How?

By blunt, real dialogue.

On what?

Immigration.

Sadly -we don’t realize that in a true democracy, there needs to be some form of consensus to do something big. But to have consensus – would mean being will to actually hear people’s concerns - and at times, ditching one’s own opinions and political correctness…addressing concerns, and moving forward.

Seriously, if such conversations could ever be had in America - my goodness, we’d have HALF this problem licked.

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The Daily Mail paints a bleaker picture

“Inflation is forcing state and local officials to CANCEL or scale back infrastructure projects under Biden’s $1trillion bill: Shortage of workers and prices of pipes, asphalt and construction materials surging”

"The price of a foot of water pipe in Tucson, Arizona: up 19 percent. The cost of a ton of asphalt in a small Massachusetts town: up 37 percent. The estimate to build a new airport terminal in Des Moines, Iowa: 69 percent higher, with a several year delay.

The price hikes already are diminishing the value of a $1 trillion infrastructure plan Biden signed into law just seven months ago. Many economists and Republicans say the influx of federal funds is one of the leading causes of skyrocketing inflation, and money set aside for the projects is being rendered useless.

‘Those dollars are essentially evaporating,’ said Jim Tymon, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. "

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10931893/Inflation-…

Good read as usual.

Raw materials up 20-40%

Labor - hard to get and taken from other construction projects

Some of money in the bill is for the ‘electric grid’ and ‘broadband’. We’ll see how far that goes.

With 8% inflation, that trillion bucks is only 920 billion this year…840 billion next year…750 billion in purchasing power in 2025…under 700 billion in 2025…evaporating away. Construction material and energy is ramping up at 20% =40% over last year with no end in sight. China is facing another covid wave. Imports are actually down this year.

t.

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It will be interesting to see if most of the ‘infrastructure’ projects are simply repurposed already planned state and local projects that would be done some time in the future awaiting funding, and will be done by state and local workers anyway, rather than ‘new’ projects requiring ‘new workers’.

I have one for them! In Montana the Drummond Frontage Road, maybe a mile and a half off the freeway from the Bearmouth exit, is cut down to one lane due to some rather large rocks landing in the other lane. Those rocks need moved and probably the road under them needs some repairs…

…it’s been that way for three years that I know of, quite possibly longer. OBVIOUSLY federal funding is needed for such a high priority project.

“ A huge part of the current problems - ie inflation - could be solved. With not too much complication.”

One ‘asset’ this country has always had is plentiful cheap labor. Nowadays coming from south of the border, people are seeking a better life from their troubled countries. Unfortunately, their plight has been politicized and they are held up at the border. I wonder who prospers from that.

We’re all immigrants and shouldn’t forget our humble beginnings. Remember what’s printed on the Statue of Liberty:

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

“We’re all immigrants and shouldn’t forget our humble beginnings”

If you forget the Native Americans here before the European invasion…that is true… but a million or more would disagree with you.

And no, most of the country is 3rd and 4th generation and 5th generation native born.

My grandfolks and great grandfolks came here legally. They were required to have a ‘sponsor’ to take care of them for 5 years if they couldn’t do it on their own, or have a job already lined up with their job skills.

Another significant portion of the population would up here not because they wanted to be here but they were bought and sold. Now tens of millions of ‘native born’ descendants.

Canada has a great policy for immigration - you only get in with ‘high level’ job skills for the most part - college graduates - or those with lotsa bucks to start a business in Canada. They don’t have floods of poor, uneducated folks illegally crossing the border by the tens of millions over a decade.

Now, it catch and release…and at least half manage to escape the border security and get here…and those ‘caught and released’ usually never show up for hearings. Working ‘off the books’ somewhere.

t.

“We’re all immigrants and shouldn’t forget our humble beginnings”

If you forget the Native Americans here before the European invasion…

Didn’t they come from Asia via the Bering Strait?

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bering+Strait/@64.2207441,…

The Captain

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Many older workers are retiring. Many younger workers aren’t attracted to the hard, sometimes dirty, work of construction. That’s leaving a real shortage.

Not just construction! Mining, oil, and gas professions are not attracting younger folks, and some universities are even closing down those programs due to lack of enrollment. And to make things worse, now that resource stocks are at all-time highs, some of the older workers are deciding that now is a good time to retire.

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