Infrastructure Job Plan Skewed Towards States with Low Unemployment

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The stimulus bill allocates $98.3 billion for projects related to transportation and infrastructure. These expenditures are expected to generate large numbers of jobs. However, states with low unemployment are getting more money per capita unemployed than states that are more in need of jobs. For example, according to ProPublica, Wyoming, with an unemployment rate of 3.2%, will be receiving more than $20,000 per unemployed worker, while Michigan, with an unemployment rate of 9.6%, will get only $2,434 per unemployed worker. With the exception of Alaska, none of the 12 states with the worst unemployment will receive more than $3,650 per unemployed worker, while the 22 states with the lowest unemployment rate will all receive more than $4,100 per unemployed worker.

 
Stimulus Infrastructure Funding Short-Changes States with High-Unemployment (by Jennifer LaFleur and Michael Grabell, ProPublica)

Comments

Leave a comment