Coverage of the survey of the Associated General Contractors of America is noting how construction jobs have been created by the stimulus so far. A bit more from their report:

“With construction unemployment at almost double the national rate, it is disappointing to see so many stimulus programs getting off to such a slow start,” said Stephen E. Sandherr, the chief executive officer of the contractors association.
Sandherr said that five months into a federal stimulus program that has approximately $135 billion dedicated for construction projects, there is little difference in hiring and purchasing patterns between companies doing stimulus-funded work and companies that aren’t . . .
Outside of the transportation arena, little of the stimulus’ authorized construction dollars have resulted in actual construction work.

Sixty-eight of the 197 firms have yet to begin work on any stimulus-funded project, and 129 firms said their stimulus work under contract will last less than one year. Sixty-six companies said the stimulus work would have “no appreciable effect” on their bottom line, and seven actually said it was hurting their bottom line.

Sixty firms said they had hired new or rehired laid-off workers because of stimulus-related work; 133 said they had not.

This fact is pretty astounding: “While 36 percent of construction firms with stimulus funded work plan to purchase new equipment and supplies, a higher rate – 43 percent – of construction firms without stimulus-funded work report plans to purchase new equipment over the same time frame.”