So what does that mean for the industry? I really don’t care whether you are a Democrat, Republican, Tea Party, Independent or Libertarian, “It is still about the jobs, stupid!” We need to put more feet back in construction jobs and unfortunately that is becoming a more difficult assignment.
The unemployment rate across the US is still about 9.6% but it is over 17% in the construction industry. With the moratorium on deep water drilling and the rigs heading for friendlier waters, it looks as though the jobs in our industry will be a while coming back.
I am thinking about what the “lame duck” members of Congress might do. The President said this week that he wanted to reach out to the new members of Congress and to work closely with them, but I have a hunch that we might see some additional PLA type executive orders and even some movement on other issues that could hurt us as the economy recovers. “Lame duck” means that they can make some moves to flange up some of the previous bills and lay the ground work for the new Congress to address. Right now they are screening the vote counts to see who voted and what they said beyond, “Enough!”
The new Tea Party members of Congress have begun to exert themselves. They called for a new caucus of members to talk about the issues. They will have little time, like the next 60 days, to establish themselves. It will be interesting to see how they relate with the Rs and the Ds. Will the President need to reach out to them as well?
Bottom line for us is that we need job growth soon in our industry. The new Congress holds the key to those new jobs and in the words heard around the country from the electorate, “Perform or take a hike in 2012!”
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