The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that U.S. payrolls dropped by 85,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate remains at 10 percent. The House of Representatives passed in December a jobs bill that would include $37.3 billion for transportation. (see Dec. 18 AASHTO Journal story) The Senate is likely to consider the measure during the next few weeks.

Job creation was high on the agenda during the House Democrats' annual issues conference, which began Thursday in the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center. Rep. John Larson, D-CT and chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said lawmakers will focus on infrastructure, manufacturing, and technology as three key sectors that the government can help support to create new jobs.

The administration supports additional transportation funding in a jobs bill. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting in Washington this week that a job-creation measure is an opportunity to put more Americans to work on ready-to-go infrastructure improvements.

"We know that robust investments in highways, transit, aviation, and rail result in good-paying jobs and in projects that will benefit us all," LaHood said. "And at DOT we received many, many more applications for our recovery act programs than we could possibly fund. So we think the final bill should feature more infrastructure investments."

State transportation departments have identified more than 9,500 highway, bridge, transit, rail, port, aviation, and intermodal projects worth $70 billion that, if funded by Congress, could be used to create hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country. (see Dec. 4 AASHTO Journal story)