This Labor Day we salute the construction workers who build our country! From the iron-workers who build our cities to the railway workers who maintain our transportation infrastructure these men and women work under difficult conditions and in all types of weather to keep America moving forward.
Unlike my Labor Day Salute! post from three years ago when construction was lagging, this year construction is booming. In June 7,300 construction jobs were added as part of a total 281,000 jobs that month. The unemployment rate dropped to 6.1%, and a milestone has been hit with the number of employed workers gaining back all of the losses from the 2007 great recession. The recovery which has taken seven years, is the longest recovery of any of the five recessions since 1980.
Bottom Line: With the countries crumbling infrastructure, some of which dates from the nineteenth century, we are going to need a trained and skilled workforce to rebuild our roads, bridges and utilities. Private and public partnerships could be used to help lower the boom and bust cycles of the last twenty years and maintain a stable, well trained labor workforce.
Design & the Bottom Line 