As announced today, the unemployment rate may have officially dipped just below 10 percent, but for many industries that is little consolation.

Unemployment in the construction equipment industry is more than double the national average, but we can recapture these jobs with the right legislation. What's the solution?

Washington needs to focus on legislation for a multi-year, fully-funded transportation infrastructure program that would boost employment in the construction industry, including equipment manufacturers and dealers who sell the machinery and construction contractors who buy and use the machinery.

The industry is not asking for the bailouts given to the auto industry or the financial services sector, but it is asking Congress to make the "highway bill" reauthorization a priority.

Unfortunately, Congress has "kicked the issue down the road" by passing two short-term extensions since the last bill expired in September 2009. The latest two-month extension expires on February 28, 2010, and it appears that the most likely Congressional action will be another extension, a move that does not create the market certainty to promote job growth or meaningful infrastructure improvement.