Sparklines

The US Factory Boom Is a Golden Opportunity for Green Job Training

Construction workers, electricians and engineers could all pick up new skills to help decarbonize the economy. 

Electrician apprentices work on wiring transformers at a trade school in Louisville, Kentucky. 

Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

This is from the Green Daily newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox.

You may have heard that the US is in the midst of a manufacturing boom. Thanks to a combination of the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS Act and a general interest in re-shoring US capacity, manufacturers’ construction spending has reached an annual rate of $190 billion. That is double the rate of just a year ago. Manufacturing as a share of US private-sector construction has not been this high since at least 1990, when government data sets begin.