The Bureau of Labor Statistics today released its monthly employment report, which showed the U.S. economy gained 559,000 jobs in the month of May. The report also indicated that the nation has lost over 700,000 jobs in the manufacturing and construction sectors since February 2020. A recent survey from the BlueGreen Alliance in six key states (MI, MN, OH, PA, WV, and WI) showed Democratic, Republican, and independent voters overwhelmingly (90%) said repairing and modernizing the nation’s physical infrastructure and rebuilding and retooling American manufacturing and modernizing our factories to build products and technology in the United States is very or fairly important to them.

After the announcement, the BlueGreen Alliance released a statement from Executive Director Jason Walsh:

“We need to be bold to get our economy on track. As we continue to emerge from this pandemic, we need to invest in workers and our future. Building back better means lifting up communities hit by America’s energy transition or the offshoring of good manufacturing jobs, creating and sustaining good-paying union jobs in construction, manufacturing, and the care economy for working people, protecting the health and safety of workers on the job, and cleaning up our air and water.

“We have not recovered the manufacturing and construction jobs that kept food on the table for so many Americans before the pandemic. It’s past time to do something about that.

“We need the full American Jobs Plan, and we need it now.”