Dive Brief:

• Construction's lack of diversity was pulled into the national political debate last week when Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was confronted with a question about whether the bipartisan infrastructure package was a "White guy employment act."
• MSNBC host Joy Reid asked Buttigieg Thursday whether it was a mistake to separate physical infrastructure from President Joe Biden's Build Back Better social and environmental package, since the infrastructure law will likely employ mostly White men.
• "Do you think it was a mistake looking back, because you know that the infrastructure bill that was passed was cleaved apart from what's now being called Build Back Better?" Reid asked. "And in a sense, it's a bill that's like a White guy employment act, right?"

Dive Insight:

The construction industry, which stands to benefit perhaps more than any other sector from the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, is overwhelmingly White and male, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

White people represent 87.9% of all workers in construction, with just 11% of positions filled by women, and only 6.3% filled by Blacks. The overall workforce, by comparison, is 77.5% White, 47% female and 12.3% Black.

Construction companies themselves have been struggling to combat that image, and rolled out the inaugural Construction Inclusion Week in 2021 to address it.

Buttigieg responded that the infrastructure law will benefit transit riders, many of whom are...

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