A new report from the National League of Cities (NLC) quantifies what ATSSA members know all too well: It’s tough to fill industry positions.

“Hard to Fill Infrastructure Jobs: A Challenge to Building Our Future” looked at the time to hire people for infrastructure jobs compared to other jobs and the share of infrastructure jobs taking longer to fill than in other industries.

NLC found the median time to fill an infrastructure job was 23.3 days compared to 19.5 days for other industries. It also found that 30% of the jobs were hard to fill for infrastructure versus 24% in non-infrastructure fields.

“As this report so clearly shows, infrastructure jobs are harder to fill than jobs in other industries, across all regions and all city sizes,” NLC CEO & Executive Director Clarence E. Anthony states in the report. “As municipalities prepare to put infrastructure dollars to work, we must ensure that our worker supply meets business demand.”

ATSSA was among 110 groups today sending a letter to all members of the House of Representatives, encouraging them to vote for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which passed the Senate in bipartisan action.

The IIJA “represents a historic opportunity to provide substantial economic and quality of life enhancements to communities across the country and to build for the future,” the letter states. “The investments made in the package would facilitate long overdue repairs and improvements to our roads, bridges, rail, and public transportation, and other critical infrastructure, such as airports, ports, broadband, energy, and water systems.”

The infrastructure bill includes a 5-year reauthorization of federal highway, public transportation and passenger rail programs, which the groups note would “ensure states and localities have much-needed funding and policy certainty to proceed with planned projects.”

Those projects are currently operating under a funding extension set to expire Sept. 30.

The pandemic kept countless people off the roads but that didn’t mean roadway workers were safer. In fact, reports from across the country showed many of the drivers out during that time took the opportunity to accelerate with some traveling in excess of 100 mph.

That put roadway workers, who were still on the job, at greater danger and some paid the ultimate price.

The American Traffic Safety Services (ATSS) Foundation honors the men and women killed in roadway work zone incidents by including their names on the National Work Zone Memorial. The list of names is updated each year with the submissions  received by Dec. 1.

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) released the results of its industry survey on innovative products for work zones.

This spring, Caltrans gathered information from manufacturers and vendors of work zone-related safety products about recent innovations in the products.

Twelve ATSSA member companies responded about work zone safety products they offer and were mentioned in the 42-page report, “Work Zone Safety: Synthesis of Literature and Industry Survey.”

Nominations are now open for ATSSA’s 2021 Mark of Excellence Award, one of four national awards traditionally announced at the Association’s Annual Convention & Traffic Expo.

The Mark of Excellence Award recognizes an ATSSA member who has shown professional integrity, dedication, involvement and outstanding performance in the advancement of roadway safety infrastructure through improved pavement markings.

Nominations come from members of the Pavement Marking Division and the Manufacturers & Suppliers Division. The deadline to submit nominations is Nov. 13.