"Although African American men are underrepresented in the
construction industry, they do hold jobs in construction and lost jobs
when the industry took a hit during the recession. Roughly one-quarter
of the decline in employment for black men from 2007 to 2011 was due to
their loss of jobs in construction. Investing in transportation
infrastructure is a good mechanism to improve labor market conditions
for black male construction workers.
"EPI estimates that African Americans could obtain as much as 14
percent of all jobs created by large public transit investment projects.1
Blacks are only about 11 percent of the labor force, so these projects
bring a slightly disproportionate benefit to black workers. About
three-quarters of the jobs created from infrastructure investments go to
males, and most of the jobs pay medium-to-high wages. Projects such as
addressing the backlog of repair work in all of our public transit
systems would bring a tremendous benefit to the nation as a whole and
provide opportunities for blacks to obtain about 160,000 jobs.2
"African Americans could gain an even larger share of the jobs . . ." [Read more]
