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INVESTING IN AMERICA: U.S. Department of Transportation Celebrates Creation of More Than 1.7 Million Construction and Manufacturing Jobs, 700,000 Transportation Sector Jobs, Since the Start of the Biden-Harris Administration

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

More than 60,000 projects are moving forward with funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, with construction employment at all time high since data collection started in 1939

Secretary Buttigieg to attend groundbreaking today for the Long Bridge Expansion project, part of the Transforming Rail in Virginia program that is expected to create more than 36,000 jobs

Video caption: The Brightline West High Speed Rail project, for example, is expected to create 35,000 construction jobs – including union jobs – and 1,000 permanent positions when completed in 2028. One of those workers is Darryl, a member of Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA), Local 872.

WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Department of Transportation is celebrating the historic opportunity of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda and the more than 1.7 million construction and manufacturing jobs, and over 700,000 transportation sector jobs that have been created since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration. Removing residential construction jobs from the total, more than 1.3 million construction and manufacturing jobs have been created under the Biden-Harris Administration. And this agenda is spurring union jobs: the U.S. now has 400,000 more union workers than in 2021. 

To date, American workers are advancing over 60,000 projects thanks to funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – projects to rebuild deteriorating bridges, make roadways safer, upgrade ports to be more efficient, modernize airport terminals, and expand public transit and passenger rail services, including the first high-speed rail system that will be operational on American soil. And, through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s Build America, Buy America Act, all iron, steel, manufactured products, and construction materials used in federally-funded infrastructure projects are required to be produced in America. 

Together, these projects are strengthening the American economy by fortifying supply chains and lowering costs, improving America’s global competitiveness, and creating millions of good-paying jobs that bring people into the middle class.

Since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration:  

  • More than 16 million new jobs have been created, including 1.7 million construction and manufacturing jobs – with construction employment at a record high since data collection started in 1939. 
    • During the previous administration, from January 2017-December 2020, 172,000 manufacturing jobs were lost.    
  • More than 700,000 transportation sector jobs have been created – including pilots, port workers, bus drivers, rail engineers, and others. 
  • Investment in the construction of new factories has nearly tripled.   The country has reached the lowest unemployment rate in over 50 years. 
  • American workers are advancing over 60,000 projects to rebuild America’s infrastructure, including roads, bridges, airports, ports, and more through our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Learn more about the impact of President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law by the numbers.

And the Biden-Harris Administration is creating training pipelines to ensure all Americans can access the hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs created by the President’s Investing in America agenda. The Administration has made the largest federal investment in U.S. history in Registered Apprenticeships and has launched nine Investing in America Workforce Hubs across the country that are bringing together unions, local governments, employers, training providers, schools, community colleges, and other stakeholders to facilitate partnerships to train and connect workers to jobs in high-demand sectors. Secretary Buttigieg and other senior administration leaders have visited union facilities and community colleges across the country meeting the workers, apprentices, and pre-apprentices who are vital to building tens of thousands of projects as part of our Infrastructure Decade. 

Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Project Highlights 

  • The Brightline West High Speed Rail project will be America’s first true high-speed passenger rail system connecting Las Vegas and Southern California. It is expected to create 35,000 construction jobs, 1,000 permanent positions, and carry 8 million passengers a year when completed in 2028. Additionally, the trains will be manufactured in upstate New York, specifically the American Pioneer 220 (AP220), in America’s first high-speed rail production facility. The site will create roughly 300 jobs in the local community, including electro-mechanical assemblers, quality management, quality control, industrial production and test engineers, project management, supply chain management and logistics employees. Because of the work of the Biden-Harris Administration, it is estimated that more than 95 percent of the total direct dollar expenditures for the Brightline West project will be spent on domestically sourced products and labor. 
  • The Hudson River Tunnel project will build a new two-track rail tunnel from the Bergen Palisades in New Jersey to Manhattan, directly serving New York Penn Station and rehabilitating the existing North River Tunnel. It’s expected to create more than 72,000 jobs in the region. The existing North River Tunnel serving Penn Station is more than 110 years old and was severely damaged during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. While the tunnel has been repaired frequently, its age and damaged condition present reliability concerns for more than 200,000 people who travel through the tunnel on more than 400 trains every weekday.  
  • The Blatnik Bridge Replacement project will replace the current Blatnik Bridge, a major connection between the cities of Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin, that is otherwise at risk of closing within the next ten years due to decaying infrastructure. The updates will help prevent fatalities and serious injuries that are seven to ten times higher than the state averages and improve employment access for approximately 6,000 daily commuters. Additionally, the project is expected to create nearly 10,000 construction jobs and ease lengthy detours that regional freight currently experiences. Additionally, the MnDOT has developed a contract with the Duluth Workforce Center for outreach to groups underrepresented in the heavy construction trades while also leveraging its workforce development program with Duluth Public Schools, which will create good-paying, union jobs within the area. 
  • The California Inaugural High-Speed Rail Service Project will help deliver high-speed rail service in California’s Central Valley by designing and extending the rail line between Bakersfield and Merced, procuring new high-speed trainsets and constructing the Fresno station, which will connect communities to urban centers in Northern and Southern California. This 171-mile rail corridor project has already created over 14,000 good-paying, union construction jobs. 
  • The Long Bridge project, part of the Transforming Rail in Virginia – Phase II program, will construct a new two-track rail bridge over the Potomac River to expand passenger rail capacity between Washington, D.C. and Richmond, VA. Nearly 6 million passengers travel over the existing bridge every year on Amtrak and Virginia Railway Express lines. This upgrade will reduce congestion and delays on this heavily traveled corridor, and the Transforming Rail in Virginia program is expected to create more than 36,000 jobs.