ACEC Study Finds Infrastructure Agreement Will Create 82,000 Engineering Jobs, Add $75 Billion to GDP

ACEC News / Industry Statistics

June 28, 2021

ACEC Study Finds Infrastructure Agreement Will Create 82,000 Engineering Jobs, Add $75 Billion to GDP

On the heels of last week’s announcement that a bipartisan agreement had been reached on infrastructure,ACEC released a new report analyzing how the proposal might benefit the engineering and design industry in terms of economic output and job creation.

“This is the first time we have taken a hard look at the numbers to see how a massive infrastructure investment would directly benefit America’s engineering industry,” said ACEC President and CEO Linda Bauer Darr. “If the package spurs growth in our industry of this magnitude, then the impact to the broader economy must be huge.

Using a baseline for infrastructure spending established by the ACEC Research Institute in its 2021-2025 Engineering Industry Forecast, the study outlined scenarios for the President’s Jobs plan and the initial Republican proposal, and then compared those to the framework of the bipartisan Senate proposal announced yesterday.

The ACEC study estimates that the bipartisan agreement would create more than 82,000 full and part-time jobs in engineering and design services, generate $62 billion in A/E industry wages and add $75 billion to GDP. Overall, the proposal would lead to a 6% average annual increase in engineering and design services sector activity over the next six years, pushing annual output from $352 billion in 2021 to $416 billion by 2026.

“The historic levels of investment in the bipartisan agreement will unleash the talent and ingenuity of America’s engineering industry to transform our built environment in ways that will benefit the nation for years to come,” Darr added.

Click here for the complete analysis from ACEC.

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