Markle Foundation: Trump's Infrastructure Plans Should Pair Building with Job Training
President Trump has started to lay out his principles for a $1 trillion makeover of America’s roads, bridges, waterways, electrical grid, and air traffic control system. His plan to modernize America’s infrastructure will require the administration and Congress to work together if it is to be enacted later this year. Whatever the contours of the bill, the plan will have to first overcome a significant problem that already plagues the U.S. economy: a severe lack of skilled workers necessary to turn job-creation goals into reality. As the White House works on its proposal, it should make skills training for infrastructure-related jobs a central part of the plan.
As the president and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin have rightly said, America’s low unemployment rate, currently at 4.3 percent, is a misleading snapshot. Research shows that 46 percent of Americans consider themselves underemployed. . .