A new report, released on July 27 by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), determined that more than 100,000 family-sustaining equipment manufacturing jobs can be created over the next three years. Research done by HIS Markit showed that the jobs, which will mostly be located in rural areas, will pay $88,000. That is a 35% increase over the current average pay.
This number is based on the passage of the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2021 in the Fall of 2021. Furthermore, the study assumes that three-quarters of the spending taking place during the first five years.
“The bipartisan infrastructure framework agreed to by the White House and a group of Senators, coupled with a five-year surface transportation reauthorization, is vital for the 2.8 million men and women of the equipment manufacturing industry, for their families and communities, for the U.S. economy, and for bipartisanship in this country,” said Kip Eideberg, AEM senior vice president of government and industry relations, in a statement.
“The data shows that it would also create nearly 500,000 new manufacturing jobs overall, generate over $2 billion in new federal, state, and local tax revenue from the equipment manufacturing industry, and result in an additional $27 billion in overall economic output,” added Eideberg.
Other findings from the report include:
- From 2022-2024 equipment manufacturers and supporting, industries will generate over $27B in output as a result of the proposed investments.
- This investment will also result in $2.25 billion in additional taxes paid to federal, state, local governments before the end of President Biden’s first term by the equipment manufacturing industry and their supporting industries.
- The full American Jobs Program (AJP), as proposed in early 2021, suggest that the ramp-up in spending could raise GDP growth by between 0.2 and 0.4 percentage point from 2022 through 2024—enough to lift the level of GDP about 1% above our baseline forecast by 2024 and push the unemployment rate below 3%—before the effects reverse.