‘It’s gonna take us a little time’: Labor market a challenge for infrastructure law

A trillion-dollar federal infrastructure investment is supposed to markedly improve the nation’s physical framework, from modernizing electrical grids and water-delivery systems to constructing new roads and bridges.

But the proposed upgrades aren’t going to magically build themselves — and that’s already becoming a problem for the federal government.

Top federal officials say that finding skilled workers to build the new infrastructure, especially amid a tight labor market, has been among their top challenges.

It’s why they have undertaken a significant effort to streamline the hiring process for the federal government and help identify, train and deploy a new generation of skilled laborers, understanding that a too-small workforce threatens the heart of the $1.2 trillion law.

“We find ourselves in a challenging economic environment right now,” said Mitch Landrieu, a senior White House adviser responsible for implementing the infrastructure law. “And we’re running to the fire with our private-sector partners to figure this out.”

Landrieu said he’s confident the government will eventually find enough workers, calling it an “anticipated challenge,” but cautioned it won’t fix the problem overnight.

“It’s gonna take us a little time,” he said.

The labor shortfall is yet another unexpected difficulty for the infrastructure law caused by the nation’s economy. Soaring inflation has also driven up the price of most goods needed to make the improvements, sapping the investment’s buying power before the federal government can even begin distributing much of the money for the projects.

Experts also say the hiring difficulties underscore the nation’s longstanding deficit of so-called STEM workers, those who work in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. With an infrastructure package that requires everyone from more operators at water treatment plants to workers who can lay down broadband cable, they say, the problem is only growing.

But in the meantime, local government leaders say they’re concerned the chase for workers will be difficult, particularly in places like Miami where the unemployment rate is even lower than the national rate.

RED TAPE

“If you flood into the market a hundred or two-hundred-million dollars’ worth of work in an area with 1.4% unemployment, you are going to have a lot of work chasing very few employees, unemployed people,” said Francis Suarez, Miami’s mayor.

The mayor cited a particular challenge in finding enough workers to help the city build on efforts to make Miami more climate resilient, including architects and construction workers.

“That’s definitely a challenging area,” he said.

The national unemployment rate in May was 3.6%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, one of the lowest rates of the last 20 years.

Officials in Washington are already moving to hire more than 8,000 new federal employees as part of the infrastructure law.

They’ve attempted to streamline the hiring process, giving special priority for infrastructure-related jobs and creating special teams within the Office of Personnel Management to help the many federal agencies each get up to speed with the hiring process.

And Cabinet officials, like Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, have promoted those hiring efforts publicly, urging people to commit to public service.

But the 8,000 federal jobs represent just a fraction of the total jobs that the infrastructure law will eventually fund, most of which will come from private contractors working with the federal, state and local governments. And rather than bureaucratic inertia, the biggest challenge is finding enough skilled laborers.

It’s a problem Landrieu says he’s trying to solve with the help of both the private and academic officials.

“My team, almost on a daily basis, is working with business and labor, the academic institutions, higher education, primary and secondary and technical schools to think about, well, how can we develop a workforce development program in the country that makes sense?” said Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans. “Because quite frankly, you know, from my years of being a legislator, a lieutenant governor and a mayor, I never thought that we did a really thoughtful job in this country.

“And hopefully, when you have a strong market signal like this, where the money is actually in place, it will help us develop that over the long term,” he added.

LONG TIMEFRAME

Congress passed the infrastructure bill last year with the support of 19 Republican senators, before President Joe Biden signed it into law and touted it as a rare bipartisan achievement in Washington. Along with the American Rescue Plan, the law stands as one of Biden’s signature accomplishments so far during his presidency.

But some infrastructure experts cautioned that, even if the law ultimately helps rebuild the nation’s physical framework, the timing of its initial implementation amid a scarce labor market could make things difficult in the law’s early going.

“For any big infrastructure project, you kind of need it all,” said Rick Geddes, a non-resident scholar at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute. “You need electricians, you need steam fitters, hydraulic operators, you need painters, you need drywall people. You need really skilled workers. And there’s a question of how quickly those labor markets will rebound.”

Geddes did express optimism that because the law will be implemented over the next five to 10 years, hiring could eventually become easier. And if the country suffers an economic downturn, the extra jobs could be a boost at a time when the economy needs it most.

Landrieu said despite the challenges of finding enough skilled workers, he’s happy to have the money from the federal government move toward creating jobs.

“It is a good problem to have, right?” he said. “As opposed to, you know, not having any jobs and not having any money to build any things that require jobs. So no big surprise, just a big challenge. And one that I feel fairly comfortable that we will find our way through.”

This story was originally published June 16, 2022 at 3:00 AM with the headline "‘It’s gonna take us a little time’: Labor market a challenge for infrastructure law."