The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that Joe Biden signed back in 2021 seemed like it would be great for America with promises of crucial improvements to everything from roads to water supplies. Not to mention that there was a promise of jobs, and a lot of them, which at least sounds like a breath of fresh air. Certainly, Biden’s intentions seemed solid in his quest to bring industrial greatness back to America. The trouble is that, after years of pushing industry away, there are various problems with this plan.
As the building boom is set to get properly underway, those issues are becoming all too obvious, and they ultimately come down to one oversight – the labor force simply isn’t there to complete the business goals Biden has set for the industry. The construction shortage means that the vast majority of construction firms are significantly short on meeting the construction intentions outlined in the agreement.
This is putting major pressure on an industry that’s already been pushed to breaking point in recent years. Furthermore, it leaves a lot of money that’s been set aside for the boom at risk of quite literally going to waste.
It’s a problem, but where are the workers that should be the building blocks of Biden’s building boom?
Understanding the infrastructure law
Announced in 2021, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is the largest-ever federal investment in public transportation. Consisting of spending that amounts to anywhere up to $108 billion, it’s intended to improve highways and railways, build bridges, and even construct electric car charging docks.
With these focuses in sore need of attention, the infrastructure law seems promising on the surface, but experts have been expressing concerns about its effectiveness since the beginning. Concerns especially arose around Biden’s vow to source all of the construction materials for the project in America. Fundamentally, this American-only agenda is a problem because it limits the amount of materials available within that price bracket for no real reason. That’s only going to add to existing high infrastructure costs that are already causing problems across America.
But the costs are just the tip of the iceberg for problems with the infrastructure law in general. An estimated 700,000 new jobs created by the building boom are proving impossible to fill, and risk unraveling the entire project if construction firms are unable to fill those gaps.
Breaking down the costs
Biden’s vow to spend $108 billion on transport infrastructure initially seemed promising in being the largest federal investment in public transport in American history. But, a closer look reveals major flaws in the costing of this plan.
As mentioned, a focus on American-only materials is one setback that’s keeping project costs unnecessarily high. And, it isn’t only materials that construction companies need to factor in. The high costs of a limited construction labor force, as well as additional considerations like contractor insurance cost, appealing benefits packages, and so on also need factoring for. With this budget also needing to stretch across 700,000 workers that simply don’t exist, a reasonable sum of money starts to look pretty small. Too small to cover the scope of a project that basically requires the retraining of an entire generation that’s previously been pushed away from manual labor. As a result, the pledged $108 billion is at very real risk of going to waste with no improvements to show for itself.
Understanding the labor shortage
Of all of the issues with Biden’s building boom plans, the labor shortage is the Achilles heel of the problem. Sure, costs are an issue, but they would perhaps be manageable to at least some degree if it weren’t for the fact that, on average, half a million more workers are required to make it possible. That’s no small shortage and, with works set to begin imminently, it’s left the construction firms at the top in something of a panic.
But why is the labor shortage so severe? The plain fact is that 80% of construction firms now report difficulty filling labor positions, with many comparing the building boom to a WWII-style push to get construction going again. And, in reality, America only has itself to blame. At the heart of the problem, it seems, is the decades that the nation has spent offshoring its construction workforce, while simultaneously encouraging American-born workers away from vocational jobs.
It’s hardly surprising, then, that Biden’s all-American construction plans are falling short of a generation that simply hasn’t been raised to consider construction as a viable career path.
Is there a way forward?
It’s already safe to say that the labor shortage isn’t going anywhere quickly, with many experts predicting that 2023’s record employment gaps are only set to worsen in the coming years.
While it might be a little late to save the building boom in its entirety, there are steps Biden could take to at least lessen the money lost here. But, the question is, with contradictory attitudes abound, will he take them?
Perhaps the most obvious solution would simply be to offshore these construction jobs as has been done for decades at this point. That would at least buy time to train a new generation of American manual laborers, but it would require the swallowing of some humble pie on a project that set itself an impossible goal just to keep things American.
Prison workers are also showing some promise with regard to an upcoming workforce. According to the director of the state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, Annette Chambers-Smith, construction employers who would have previously refused to hire ex-convicts are now actively looking for workers among inmates. In light of this, prison programs are beginning to train in crucial construction areas, such as tower technician work. This is particularly promising news considering that the 18,000 inmates released each year are far less likely to reoffend if they go directly into good jobs.
But this is by no means a quick solution, which begs the question, is Biden’s building boom going to end up being a bust?