In response to a federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) solicitation for comments on green jobs, AGC of America has submitted comments that ask the BLS to re-think its intentions, based on our belief that such a task is both beyond the scope of the Bureau's mission and impossible to complete accurately.
We further were concerned that the proposed definitions of green jobs do not take fully into account the nature and scope of the greenness of construction industry.
Among key points of our comments:
- AGC took issue with the Bureau's failure to categorize as green some categories of construction jobs, including highway, street, and bridge construction workers; construction equipment merchant wholesalers; and heavy machinery rental and leasing, among several others.
- We also objected to the plan to quantify the amount of green jobs through the amount of revenue generated by a company's green work, noting that construction employment shifts throughout any given year.
- In attempting to collect information on green jobs, which do not line up with its current procedures, the BLS is going beyond its mission as the principal fact-finding agency for the federal government in the field of labor economics and statistics that "adheres to principles of objectivity and impartiality, timeliness, relevance, and transparency."