A Little ‘Buy American’ Goes a Long Way
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Gee what a concept: When U.S. taxpayer money is spent on economic stimulus programs that channel the funds into U.S. jobs, America’s communities, workers and, yes, the nation benefit.
Case in point: a stimulus-funded bridge project in Hubbard County, Minn., whose construction is based on the “Buy America” provision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. From the Alliance for American Manufacturing:
According to a Hubbard County engineer who is overseeing the project, domestically sourced inputs, including cement, plywood, and 55,000 pounds of reinforced steel, are being used because of the Buy America requirement.
Instead of using foreign inputs, which are less stimulative for job creation, domestic steel is being used to create 30-foot I-beams to support the bridge deck. Steel rebar is also used in the project. The local engineer also reports that the Buy America requirements are not burdensome and are not an impediment to the project. The project came in under budget with $600,000 allotted, but only $430,000 needed to complete the project. The bridge construction is moving quickly and is expected to be completed shortly.
U.S. Unemployment Rate Now 9.4 Percent
In May across the nation, 345,000 jobs were lost, worsening the U.S. unemployment rate to 9.4 percent, according to data released today by the Department of Labor.
There are now 14.5 million jobless U.S. workers, a number that doesn’t reflect the severity of the problem. If those who are underemployed or who want a job but have given up looking are counted, the broader U.S. unemployment rate stands at 16.4 percent—more than
25 million Americans who need jobs or full-time work but cannot find it.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) increased by 268,000 over the month to 3.9 million and has tripled since the start of the recession in December 2007.
Project Labor Agreements Benefit Communities, Contractors and Workers
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A new study finds that project labor agreements (PLAs) “make sense for public works projects” and debunks attacks by anti-union groups and contractors on such agreements, which set wages, benefits and working conditions on large multicontractor and multi-union public construction projects.
The study by the Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, “Project Labor Agreements in New York State: In the Public Interest,” details what PLAs do, how they have been used and the benefits they offer—benefits that extend to workforce and economic development.
PLAs have been demonstrated to be a very useful construction management tool for cost savings, for on-time, on-budget, and quality construction. PLAs make sense for public works projects because they promote a planned approach to labor relations, allow contractors to more accurately predict labor costs and schedule production timetables, reduce the risks of shoddy work and costly disruptions, and encourage greater efficiency and productivity.
Bad, Bad, Bad Jobs Report: Unemployment at 8.1 Percent
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Stunningly bad news on the nation’s jobless rate today: Unemployment worsened to 8.1 percent in February, from 7.6 percent in January, the highest level in more than a quarter century, according to Labor Department data released today.
We’re now looking at historical comparisons of joblessness not to the bad recession of the Reagan years but to the Depression era. This from Bloomberg:
Employers eliminated 651,000 jobs, the third straight month that losses surpassed 600,000—the first time that’s happened since the data began in 1939.
