15 Million Infrastructure Jobs: An Economic Shot in the Arm to the COVID-19 Recession

A $1.5 trillion infrastructure program from the Biden-Harris administration would be good medicine to nurse the economic wounds inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The new report, 15 Million Infrastructure Jobs: An Economic Shot in the Arm to the COVID-19 Recession, finds that an infrastructure stimulus would create or save 15 million jobs over 10 years. A majority of the jobs would be for workers with no more than a high school diploma and some non-degreed short-term postsecondary training, while the remaining quarter of infrastructure jobs would require an associate’s degree or higher.

Of the jobs created through the infrastructure program, 60% would require six months of training or less, and 40% would require more than six months of training. In general, the jobs that would require the highest level of educational attainment would require the most training. The postsecondary education system administers a majority of certificate, training, and noncredit programs that will be essential to train workers to take on these jobs. Apprenticeship programs could also help train workers for infrastructure jobs; in 2020, about 42% of apprenticeship programs were already training workers for infrastructure-related occupations.