Trump’s Infrastructure Proposal Could Yield 11 Million Jobs

Trump’s Infrastructure Proposal Could Yield 11 Million Jobs

It is not surprising that President-elect Trump’s proposed $1 trillion in spending on infrastructure is certain to have positive employment effects in keeping with standard Keynesian theory. But, here’s the potential downside: the additional spending, in combination with tax cuts and other economic policy shifts proposed by the President-elect, could generate inflation and set the stage for further interest rate hikes.

Today, we released an analysis of his infrastructure proposal, which projects that the 10-year plan could yield 11 million jobs.      

The investment would temporarily revive the blue-collar economy. High school-educated workers, especially men, could once again attain good jobs that pay as much as 20 percent more than jobs held by similarly-educated workers in other sectors. That is the best economic news many high-school educated workers have heard in a long time.

The majority of these newly-created jobs would require additional training.

  • More than half (55 percent) of new infrastructure jobs would go to high school graduates and high school dropouts, requiring a minimum (up to six months) of additional training.
  • Almost a quarter of infrastructure jobs will go to people with certificates or some college but no degree.  

More than a fifth (21 percent) of infrastructure jobs would go to people with two-year, four-year, or graduate degrees.    

The challenge in putting all workers with a high school diploma or less in infrastructure jobs is that these projects tend to end, and the jobs end with them. The challenge will be be making sure that this is not a false dawn for American workers, and that they can put the skills they learn to use in other parts of the economy as this infrastructure spending winds down.

See more of our analysis, including a breakdown by race and education level, at cew.georgetown.edu/TrumpInfrastructure.

Dr. Carnevale is Director and Research Professor of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, an independent, nonprofit research and policy institute affiliated with the Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy that studies the link between education, career qualifications, and workforce demands.




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