Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you, sir. (Operator Instructions). And our first question comes from the line of Joseph Foresi with Janney Montgomery Scott. Go ahead, sir.
Joseph Foresi - Janney Montgomery Scott
Hi, guys. I wonder if you could, I know you talked a little bit about this in the presentation. You talked about $3 billion in fast track, U.S. government ready projects. I wonder if you could kind of talk about and help us sort of connect the doubts between what we are hearing on the stimulus side, the timeframes for the spending going through the highway formula and sort of how you are propping on year-end?
John Dionisio
Okay, the $3 billion I referred to are those with the federal government where we have IDIQ contracts which... and the reason I mentioned it to jump start the spending the federal government could use those vehicles to allow us to do work in certain markets. So that is... it was presented just to indicate that we are very well positioned to hit the ground running in terms of some of the federal spending.
In terms of the stimulus packages here in United States we are taking special focus to work with various state agencies to help our clients prepare packages and prioritize projects. We are also advising on how they could accelerate some of their procurement. I mean this is going to be a big chunk of money that's going to come into various states and we are in a position to help them program manage that type of preparation.
Also what the stimulus package will do Joe is, as you see from our backlog, we've grown. I think infrastructure market remain strong here in the United States, especially in transportation. But some of the projects, there are some short falls in funding and while we are identifying for some of our clients, those projects which we have... which they have ready to go or they are in the ground now and waiting for some additional funding.
We are identifying ways that the stimulus package could be used to fill in the gap to give them a total funding so there will be no disruption with their construction. I mean as you know probably the construction industry has taken one of the biggest hits and the unemployment with about I think 1.6 million labors out of work. So it's important that with the money that come out of this stimulus package we get it into the ground as soon as we can.
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