AGC Says 37,000 Construction Jobs Saved by TPS Extension
Stephen Sandherr, CEO of the Associated General Contractors of America, praised the decision by the Trump administration to extend by one year temporary protected status for Salvadorans, including roughly 37,000 currently working legally in the domestic construction industry. AGC issued the following statement:
"Today's decision to extend temporary protection for another year to Salvadorans living in the United States means thousands of development and infrastructure projects across the country will not be put at immediate risk. That is because those projects will not be undermined this year by the sudden loss of an estimated 37,000 construction workers legally working in this country as part of the Temporary Protected Status program. The economic damage of revoking the legal status of so many skilled craft professionals at a time when 80 percent of construction employers struggle to find qualified workers will be severe.
"We urge Congress and the Trump administration to provide long-term certainty to people already working in the United State under various temporary work authorization programs. In addition, Washington officials should enact measures to allow more people to legally enter the country to allow firms to keep pace with record demand for construction services. And they must increase investments in career and technical education so we can begin the longer-term work of cultivating and preparing a new generation of domestic workers for high-paying construction careers."
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.