With Infrastructure Work Coming, MassDOT Focuses on Labor Shortage

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation plans to launch a hiring push in preparation for a slew of maintenance and modernization projects teed up by a new federal infrastructure law, but officials find themselves grappling with the labor shortage, reports WWLP 22 News.

Unlike many other industries where total employment dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of workers in scientific and construction fields, which are most important to the projects MassDOT hopes to accomplish, increased about 2.5 percent each over the past two years, according to data presented by MassDOT Chief Human Resources Officer Matthew Knosp.

“Those markets actually grew over the last couple of years. This means that overall, some of the candidate pools for many of our engineering and construction positions have become smaller compared to the pools we’re seeing for other sectors,” Knosp said at an audit and finance committee meeting Wednesday.

Read WWLP's story on MassDOT's strategies here.

Massachusetts expects to receive about $9.5 billion in formula funding over the next five-plus years as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law, and state officials say they hope to capitalize on even more money that is available through competitive grant programs.

Source: WWLP