New Study Shows Huge Talent Need From Infrastructure, IRA, CHIPS Acts, Especially Women

Katie McGinty lit up talking about working in the built environment with new construction and infrastructure technologies and funding that put people and sustainability at the center. Page Motes raved about Dell’s cool new innovative 100% sustainable computer they are manufacturing. Transforming our energy ecosystem, including with the new federal funding and incentives, excites Vanessa Chan as she talks about the cool jobs and technologies its creating.

They should know. McGinty is the Chief Sustainability Officer at the 140-year-old Johnson Controls, Motes is the head of Sustainability at Dell Technologies, and Chan is the Chief Commercialization Officer and Director of the Office of Technology Transitions at the U.S. Department of Energy.

Telva McGruder, Executive Director of Global Body Manufacturing Engineering (and former Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, among other roles) at General Motors told me their workforce needs are changing due to their transition to electric vehicles and zero emissions manufacturing too.

New federal funding creates millions of new job opportunities – and skills gaps

The kinds of jobs these women are raving about are increasing in demand as the funding and incentives from the approximately $3 Trillion allocated in the trifecta of federal legislation – the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the CHIPS and Science Act – rolls out. These laws were passed by the previous Congress under the Democrats and Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2021 and 2022 with President Biden.

What McGinty, Chan, Motes and McGruder may not be talking about is their companies’ struggles with recruiting the talent they need.

A brand-new report shines a light on the jobs-skills gaps the researchers see emerging as a result of this massive new funding, especially in construction, manufacturing and infrastructure.

The new report, by the University of Massachusetts Amherst Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) and led by Jeannette Wicks-Lim, Ph.D. and Robert Pollin, Ph.D., analyzed the jobs and skills match up from this new funding and found a gap of about 1.1 million workers.

Which jobs?

This study delineates 48 specific occupations expanding as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act, Infrastructure Act and CHIPS Act, including in electric vehicles, electricians, energy production, and road and building construction, to name a few. “By far, construction is the sector that will most likely face shortages in a range of occupations as BIL, IRA, and CHIPS investments expand to reach their full targeted levels,” according to the PERI report.

They highlighted occupations in each sector where the need is greatest. Construction will need laborers, operating engineers, electrical power-line installers and repairers, and carpenters. In manufacturing, it’s assemblers and fabricators, and electrical, electronic and electromechanical assemblers.

Broad range of people could qualify

In a previous study in September 2023, PERI found that “69% of jobs created by these three investments will be available to workers without a bachelor’s degree, compared with 59% of jobs in the entire U.S. workforce.”

That opens the opportunities to a broader swath of people across demographics and regions of the country, especially since these funds are spread across all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S territories.

Therefore, the PERI report says, “The results that we report here highlight how the overall expansion of employment through BIL, IRA, and CHIPS provides significant opportunities to diversify the occupational workforces that are presently dominated by men or White workers.”

Women needed

In their September 2023, PERI found women to be particularly under-represented in the jobs most in demand from this new legislation. They refer to the Infrastructure Act as “BIL” because it has also been called the “Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.”

It found that, “Women are extremely underrepresented in the kind of jobs that will be created across all 11 BIL investment categories. The percentage of women in the BIL workforce is just 20.4%, far below the overall U.S. workforce level of 46.8%. The percentage of women is particularly low (below 20%) in these BIL investment categories: Roads and Bridges, Broadband, Airports, and Buildings.”

In the Inflation Reduction Act, PERI found that “Women are underrepresented in the direct jobs created across all seven Inflation Reduction Act investment categories. The percentage of women in the Inflation Reduction Act workforce is just 21%, far below the overall labor market level of 46.8%. The percentage of women is particularly low (below 20%) in these Inflation Reduction Act investment categories: Electricity and Manufacturing.”

When it comes to the CHIPS Act, PERI’s September 2023 study found that “Women are underrepresented in the direct jobs created in the CHIPS investment category of Manufacturing. Due to this, the percentage of women in the CHIPS workforce is just 28.7%, far below the overall labor market level of 46.8%.”

Time for training

To qualify for some of these jobs new recruits will need training, apprenticeships, college degrees, and/or other support, including childcare, and transportation. The organizations may need their own training to hire differently from what they may be accustomed to. That includes what PERI refers to as “fair hiring practices.” Because these industries have been traditionally dominated by white men, they may need to ramp up diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives too.

Is there time since the funding has started rolling out? Yes, Wicks-Lim said in an email: “The IRA, BIL, and CHIPS programs are still rolling out and are meant to operate between 5 and 10 years (BIL and CHIPS, roughly 5 years; IRA roughly 10 years). So yes, I would say that people have time.”

Go for it.