Phoenix Construction Jobs Created by Federal Funding for Weatherization

Federal stimulus money is continuing to create much needed Phoenix construction jobs and help make the city a greener place.

The Phoenix Neighborhood Services Department previously received $7.2 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to help fund the city's Weatherization Assistance Program. Officials recently announced that so far, about 400 homes are being weatherized using those funds, with several more homes soon to follow.

"This is just the beginning," Jerome Miller, director of the Phoenix Neighborhood Services Department, said. "We will continue to put these federal dollars to work to provide maximum benefit to the residents of Phoenix."

The city's Weatherization Assistance Program is available to low-income residents who meet specific criteria and homes are tested to determine eligibility. The types of work available include: sealing duct systems; insulation; cooling and heating systems; repairing appliances with carbon monoxide emissions; and lowering heat-gain through windows and doors.

"This program is a win for everyone," Mayor Phil Gordon said, "creating jobs in the construction industry and helping realize my goal of making Phoenix the ‘greenest’ city in the nation."

The construction industry in Phoenix has been hit hard by the current economic recession. The Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale area's construction industry employed 101,400 workers during October, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 103,100 workers during October and a 24.6 percent decrease from last year.

As of the end of September, a total of $139 million in contracts had helped to create or save about 657 jobs in Arizona. While that may seem like a large number, naysayers think it is only a small number compared to the total number of jobs the stimulus is expected to create throughout the state.

Overall, Arizona is expected to receive about $14.6 billion in federal stimulus money, but so far the state has only seen about 1 percent of that. However, President Barack Obama has estimated that the stimulus could help create or save 70,000 jobs throughout the state, including indirect benefits from provisions such as tax cuts and extended unemployment benefits.

White House officials recently reported that the stimulus has created or saved anywhere from 600,000 jobs to 1.5 million jobs throughout the country.