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As the taking heads in Washington babble on about what is best for America, Americans are still out of work.

The construction industry took another existential hit today when an analysis of the latest national Bureau of Labor Statistics聽 by the Associated General Contractors of America聽 showed that the industry lost yet more workers 鈥� 9,000 between May and June.

This downward spiral is to make future expansion difficult because workers are leaving the job sector all together. While the Associated General Contractors of America announced that apartment construction and some other sectors should see improvement in the future, those gains will be offset by insufficient investment in public construction and residential buildings. President Obama had this to say regarding the importance of investing in public infrastructure.

鈥淩ight now, there are over a million construction workers out of work after the housing boom went bust, just as a lot of America needs rebuilding.聽 We connect the two by investing in rebuilding our roads and our bridges and our railways and our infrastructure.聽 And we could put back to work right now some of those construction workers that lost their jobs when the housing market went bust.聽 Right now, we can give our entrepreneurs the chance to let their job-creating ideas move to market faster by streamlining our patent process.聽 That’s pending before Congress right now.聽 That should pass.鈥�

Whether a divided Washington revving its engines up for election season can compromise on something useful to help the nation and the construction industry remains to be seen.

-Peter Beland

Photo by via Flickr