DOT: road job loss would have been worse without ARRA

DOT data shows there were more than 60,000 full-time jobs for people working in ARRA projects in July. (Associated Press/Jim Prisching)

By LYNDON FINNEY
The Trucker Staff

10/2/2009

WASHINGTON — The number of persons employed in highway, street and bridge construction has been in a literal free-fall in 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But that number would have been much worse were it not for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation said Friday.

BLS data released Friday shows that 37,200 fewer persons were working in highway, street and bridge construction in August 2009 compared with August 2008.

There were 334,000 such jobs in August 2009, the BLS said, noting that the figure was preliminary.

DOT’s data for July, when the BTS said 332,200 were employed by the highway, street and bridge construction industry, show that there were more than 60,000 full-time jobs for people working directly on ARRA projects.

“Without the Recovery Act those jobs would not exist, nor would all the jobs for the suppliers and others who support those projects,” the DOT spokesperson said, adding that according to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee there were 128,000 direct full-time transportation jobs on ARRA projects in August.

“The DOT has not finished collecting all of our data for August yet, but the DOT’s final numbers will be comparable,” the spokesperson said.

The 2009 data shows a similar pattern to the two previous years when the number of persons employed in the highway, street and bridge construction industry tends to increase April through August and drop off again the last four months of the year.

For instance, in 2008, the number of persons employed in the industry rose from 285,200 in March, peaked at 371,200 in August and had dropped to 329,900 in November and then ended the year at 281,100 in December.

In 2007, the industry’s March employment totaled 296,100. The industry peaked at 385,000 jobs in August, had dropped to 359,300 by November and ended the year at 309,300.

The year 2009 began with 242,100 jobs in January.

The DOT spokesperson said that even with ARRA, the four-month, end-of-year decline will occur this year, too.

“Transportation construction employment is seasonal. In the northern states, especially, total transportation employment will decline as the winter months approach,” the spokesperson said.

According to Victor Mendez, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, nearly two-thirds of the $26.6 billion in Recovery Act funding available to the states for highway investment has been obligated.

“Thousands of projects have gotten underway and Americans across the country have more opportunities to get back to work,” Mendez wrote on the agency’s Web site.

Since 1990, the most workers employed in the highway, street and bridge construction industry occurred in August 2005 with 404,500 persons.

Lyndon Finney of The Trucker staff can be reached to comment on this article at editor@thetrucker.com.

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