US President, Joe Biden, has paved the way for a $1.2 trillion infrastructure overhaul designed to fix the basics and modernize America through a variety of projects. The proposed package featured heavily in Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign and the pledge is now becoming a reality.
However, there are still many questions to be answered, particularly for those tasked with providing the enormous workforce that will be required to fulfil the president’s promises.
Where will the money be going?
$1.2 trillion is an eye-watering amount of money so it will be interesting to see how it gets allocated. The current proposal is to make improvements to roads, railways and electric vehicle charging networks, while also assigning large sums to public utilities, with a focus on upgrading water and energy supply systems as well as broadband internet capabilities.
Listed below are some of the larger investment projects:
$110 billion for roads, bridges and major infrastructure projects
to modernize public transit
for purchasing zero/low-emission buses and ferries
$7.5 billion to build a nationwide network of electric vehicle charging stations
to rebuild the electric grid and expand renewable energy production
to upgrade water supply systems (providing better access to clean drinking water)
$65 billion for improvements to the country’s broadband internet network
Where is all the money coming from?
The US Infrastructure Bill effectively doubles the government’s current infrastructure budget, with an additional $550 billion of investment promised over the next 5 years.
The Democrats have been keen to reiterate that the general public will not be footing the bill through increased taxes. Government lawmakers claim that the package pays for itself, but the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) estimates that around $350 billion will be added to the country’s financial deficit over the next decade.
When will work start / finish?
Timescales for projects of this size are notoriously sketchy. Unsurprisingly, the US government is yet to commit to specific dates, although it is believed that work will be starting in earnest early next year.
In an official statement, Biden suggested that Americans will start to see some progress being made in the next two or three months. Although he did also admit that it would probably take decades to fully realize his plan.
How many jobs will be created?
President Biden has called the government’s infrastructure plan a “blue-collar blueprint to rebuilding America”. Independent analysis conducted by Moody’s Analytics in March 2021 seems to back this up. The economic research firm estimates that 19 million blue-collar jobs could be created over the next 10 years, with 7 million of those becoming available in the next 12 months.
What does this mean for recruiters?
Recruiters are going to busy. Joe Biden has indicated that we should start seeing “shovels in the ground” in the next couple of months – finding millions of workers at short notice is not going to be easy.
With the Baby Boomer generation entering retirement, most blue-collar sectors (including construction) are suffering from a severe labor shortage. Staffing agencies will need to cast their nets wide to track down suitable candidates, but technology is in place to help them do just that.
Utilizing automation in the hiring process
Recruiters can fill large job orders quickly and conveniently using Mindscope’s comprehensive suite of recruitment tools. Our applicant tracking system brings automation to the hiring process in one user-friendly package.
Innovative ATS and CRM features:
Grow your talent pool quickly. Capture and import candidate information from anywhere on the web with the Shazaam parsing tool. You can assign candidates to the relevant job order with the click of a button, while saving them permanently in the database, for future use.
Reach out to your network in an instant. Send text messages to hundreds of candidates directly from your database using Mindscope’s two-way SMS messaging feature. Up to 500 messages can be sent at the same time, making it the perfect tool for filling large job orders. You can even track responses and attach them to the relevant candidate profiles.
Parse resumes and add candidate information directly from your Outlook account. Mindscope’s innovative Outlook integration lets you synchronize your inbound and outbound emails with your applicant tracking CRM platform. It is a firm favorite for our clients.
Make onboarding fast and painless. Mindscope integrates Able software, making it possible for candidates to submit forms and upload onboarding documentation from their mobile devices. If any fields are incomplete, applicants are automatically notified. This ensures that onboarding is completed quickly, which is the ideal scenario for both the candidate and the recruiter.
All candidate information gets stored securely in the database for future use.
These are just some of the advantages of Mindscope’s bespoke applicant tracking tools. We are committed to helping our customers succeed – contact us today to see how we can transform your agency’s approach to express staffing.
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