Jobs
Construction jobs cap
Also called 75 percent cap, 75% cap, short-term construction job cap.
The construction jobs cap is the statutory rule that where a regional center project's estimated jobs come from construction activity lasting less than two years, no more than 75 percent of the ten job requirement may be met with indirect jobs, against 90 percent in the ordinary case.
What it decides
Two ceilings run in parallel and are routinely swapped. 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(E)(iv)(I) lets indirect jobs satisfy up to 90 percent of the requirement in 1153(b)(5)(A)(ii), so at least one of the ten must be direct. Clause (E)(iv)(II) drops that to 75 percent where the jobs estimated to be created come from construction activity lasting less than 2 years, so no more than seven and a half may be indirect. 90 percent is the general indirect cap and 75 percent is the short construction cap. Both live in subparagraph (E), the regional center program, so neither helps a standalone investor, who may count no indirect jobs at all. A separate rule at (E)(v)(II)(cc) prorates the direct jobs from the same short construction activity by the fraction of the two year period it lasts. USCIS restates the caps in Policy Manual Volume 6, Part G, Chapter 2, which dates the construction limit to petitions filed on or after 15 May 2022.
Related terms
- 75 percent cap on short construction jobsWhere a regional center project's estimated jobs come from construction activity lasting less than two years, the share of the ten-job requirement that may be met with indirect jobs falls from 90 percent to 75 percent.
- 90 percent cap on indirect jobsThe 90 percent cap limits a regional center investor to meeting no more than nine of the ten required jobs with indirectly created ones, so at least one of the ten must be a direct job; a tighter 75 percent limit applies where the estimated jobs come from construction activity lasting less than two years.
- Indirect jobsIndirect jobs are positions created elsewhere in the economy by a project's spending, estimated with an economic model rather than counted from a payroll, and available only to regional center investors. They may fill at most nine of the ten jobs each investor must create.
- Construction job prorationConstruction job proration is the rule that a regional center project's direct construction jobs count only in proportion to how long the build lasts: where construction runs less than two years, the estimated direct jobs are multiplied by the fraction of a two year period the work takes, so an 18 month build yields 75 percent of them.
- Economic impact reportAn economic impact report is the economist's analysis that turns a project's spending, revenues or direct hiring into an estimated job total, and the project application a regional center files for each investment offering must include one. The statute and USCIS call it a credible economic analysis.
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