infrastructure

Local union leaders are celebrating $9.5 billion in federal infrastructure funding to Massachusetts that they say will lead to a growth of union jobs and apprenticeships.

Construction jobs peaked in early 2007, just before the shockwave of the Great Recession reverberated across the economy. Most of these jobs were in housing construction, as the so-called “liar loans” of the preceding years created unprecedented (and unstable) demand for homeownership. By spring 2009, construction jobs had nearly disappeared, declining tenfold from peak to trough.