USVI: New England outsources roadwork to VI

ST. THOMAS - A severe labor shortage in New England could create as much as 7,500 jobs for Virgin Islanders between May and November this year.

V.I. government officials met with U.S. Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., and a delegation of Massachusetts business leaders Tuesday on St. Croix to discuss plans for matching local workers with unfilled jobs on Cape Cod.

New England states long have depended on foreign unskilled labor for their tourism seasons, and in March, when the Bush administration stopped processing H-2B foreign work visas for this fiscal year, the states looked to the territory for a new source of workers.