Stimulus Spurs Road Projects
The work, however mundane much of it is, cannot come too soon for a construction industry buffeted by an unemployment rate that has risen to twice the national average as many states cut back on building. Mike Gibson, the executive director of Associated Contractors of New Mexico, a trade group, said his state had lost 4,500 highway construction jobs in the last year.
“We have lost the equivalent of a plant closure,” Mr. Gibson said. “When you lose 10 jobs here, 100 jobs here, it adds up very quickly.”
