A new report by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association’s (ARTBA) chief economist shows the money invested in transportation construction industry employment and purchases generates $354 billion in annual U.S. economic activity—the equivalent of 2.25% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). That’s larger than the annual GDP of 153 nations, including Denmark ($333 billion), Israel ($243 billion) and oil-rich Venezuela ($316 billion).
The report, “The U.S. Transportation Construction Industry Profile,” authored by Dr. Alison Premo Black, finds the annual value of transportation construction reached nearly $120 billion in 2012. This ranks it larger than industry sectors like commercial and health-care structures ($111.5 billion); motion pictures ($108.3 billion); amusement parks and recreation ($96.4 billion); mining (except oil and gas $90.9 billion); waste management ($89 billion) and textile and apparel manufacturing ($72.7 billion), to name a few.
To put these statistics and others into an easy-to-use format, ARTBA has launched www.transportationcreatesjobs.org, an interactive website featuring a clickable U.S. map that provides detailed statistics on job creation, federal and state payroll tax revenue generated, and the size of each state’s transportation network, current road and bridge conditions, commuting patterns and motor vehicle crashes. It is a great information source for the news media, members of Congress and their staffs, chambers of commerce, and state and local officials.
Black’s work also noted the industry supports 3.4 million full-time jobs, which generate more than $135 billion in direct and induced wages nationally and contribute an estimated $11.6 billion in state and federal payroll taxes each year.
The transportation construction industry’s largest economic impact is in the state of California, where it generates or sustains more than 348,024 jobs. California is followed by New York (307,527), Texas (303,364), Florida (191,513), Pennsylvania (166,199), Illinois (138,701), Ohio (109,349), New Jersey (104,913), Georgia (100,675), and Virginia (93,931).
Data in the profile was compiled using U.S. Census Bureau “County Business Patterns” and the U.S. Commerce Department’s Regional Input?Output Modeling System (RIMS II).
