There are entire swaths of the economy in great need of skilled workers, I’m astonished that they can write this report with no reference to that simple fact.http://www.careersinwelding.com/salary_information.php Weber’s original insight into the Protestant work ethic was that it stood in contradistinction to the traditional economic performance of individuals, where , once a comfortable level of creature comfort was attained, the marginal utility of work dropped off sharply. I have only very superficial understanding of that, but it fits the data as far as I’m concerned. Maybe it’s just too hard and dirty to be a welder? When you know you’re not going to starve, plenty of women are around who’ll give sex for not much other than the mutual pleasure and there’s plenty of entertainment to while away the hours?
Many of these jobs are being taken by immigrants, legal and illegal. And there is an endless supply of them. There are about 23 million immigrants in the workforce, 8 million of them illegal aliens.
Job Growth. The finding that new immigration was higher in the 10 years prior to 2010 than in the 10 years prior to 2000 is important because the two decades were very different in terms of job growth. There were two significant recessions during the first decade of this century plus the September 11 terrorist attacks. As Figure 3 shows, during the decade there was actually a net loss of about 400,000 jobs according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey of businesses. In contrast, the BLS reports a net increase in jobs of about 22 million between 1990 and 2000.
If we had a real shortage of workers, wages would be increasing, not decreasing. I don't care if they are welders or garbagemen. US businesses want the flow of cheap, exploitable labor to continue so they can increase profits and socialize the costs.