Conservative strategy suggests new blueprint for 400,000 transportation jobs

by Carol Forsloff - The Economic Policy Institute has taken a look at ways of creating more jobs and helping transportation and believes it has a working solution from the conservative point of view.

This organization recommends what it calls "a smart investment strategy," or the authorization of a proposed $500 billion transportation measure  which the organization claims could support more than 7.2 million jobs.

This is how they explain what they have done so far to come up with the solution to transportation issues and develop jobs at the same time.

The organization states it, "examined the jobs impact of two investment scenarios: a continuation of current transportation law, known as SAFETEA-LU, and a package of investments proposed by Transportation for America that emphasized maintenance and retrofits of existing infrastructure and completing the transportation network with adequate public transportation, in addition to highway capacity. The analysts found that, given an investment of $500 billion under either scenario, the T4America proposal would yield 400,000 more jobs over the six-year life of the law, for a total of more than 7.2 million jobs."

Given the need to create both jobs and better transportation delivery, many organizations have called for an intensive search for ideas that can help reduce the use of oil and gas and also bring new jobs at a time when the unemployment figures in the United States have been relatively high.  So this is a proposal from a conservative group to meet the objective of growing both jobs and new transportation systems, in this suggestion repairing existing ones.

It should also be mentioned, although it is not in the Transportation for America's delivery of the Economic Institute's conclusions, that President Obama had made similar recommendations during his campaign.  Still these recommendations come at a time when saving energy is on the minds of many, regardless of political party.

“The T4America proposal creates more jobs in large part because it calls for investments in more labor-intensive sectors of the economy, including repair and maintenance of the existing transportation system and public transportation,” said Ethan Pollack, the principle author of the study.

According to the analysis, this present strategy "would especially benefit those hardest hit by the recession, including low-wage workers and Americans without a college degree. About 80 percent of the new jobs created would be filled by Americans without a four-year degree. The proposal also would create jobs at a higher level of unionization (15 percent) than the overall economy (12 percent)."

So it is working class, middle America that is the target group to help in this instance, where people often face unemployment.

“This study shows why America needs a new direction in our transportation policy,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. “Cleaner and smarter transportation investments will create millions of good paying quality jobs and put our nation on a path to a lasting economic recovery.”

The EPI study echoes the 2009 findings of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts. That study showed that public transportation generates 31 percent more jobs than new construction of roads and bridges, and repair work on roads and bridges generates 16 percent more jobs than new road and bridge construction. 

“Transportation for America has an important message for the nation: The right kind of transportation investment creates jobs,” said Sam Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, a T4America coalition member. “The vision of complete transportation networks, connected cities and viable transit options is critical to economic development not only in metro Atlanta but across the country. This is an important and timely message for Congress.”