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The US is facing a labor shortage — immigration is the solution
The Hill ^ | 08/18/2023 | OHANNES LANG AND ZUZANA CEPLA

Posted on 08/18/2023 6:06:39 AM PDT by ChicagoConservative27

For over 35 years, the American political system has been unable to make any significant change to U.S. immigration policy. In June 2023, a bipartisan coalition of representatives introduced the Dignity Act, a comprehensive immigration reform bill. This followed a poll showing that four out of five Americans support bipartisan cooperation on immigration that would address labor shortages and inflation.

While U.S. politics may continue to prevent an immigration grand bargain, there are many commonsense reforms the government could take to fill gaps in our current workforce. American policymakers need to wake up to a new reality: The country is running out of workers, and immigration must be part of the solution.

(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: h1b; immigration; labor; shortage; us
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To: central_va

I was being paid a lot. I retired at 52 because I did not want to sit through another stupid HR video of how your not supposed to touch women employees. That was ten years ago. I am told its far worse now. More videos and more rules I would never follow. There is only so much money you need. I wanted to buy back my life and live according to my own rules. Which are basically the rules we all followed in 1990.


101 posted on 08/18/2023 8:53:03 AM PDT by poinq
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To: lurk
--- " If we told them their freebies run out in six months, the economy would get stimulated."

Canada had an interesting issue with middle class families having engaged an "au Pair" to mind kids. Young women coming from Europe as from the Philippines and elsewhere, working for a small cash wage plus room and board.

The enlightened Canadian government decided these "off books" were to be governed by the federal government, and so had to be declared, employment taxes and benefits paid into a system for them, and darn near overnight a hefty population of 'au Pairs" were left go by middle class families who couldn't afford the additional costs.

In a wholly different anecdote from this week, a new gardening team was working down the street, a young man and two helpers. Local, American and hard at work. For what some might call "slave wages," and others would term entry level positions and low end individual entrepreneurship. I engaged them for one of our properties. White Americans... So not "slave wages."

102 posted on 08/18/2023 8:53:32 AM PDT by Worldtraveler once upon a time (Degrow government)
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To: Ultra Sonic 007
If you're unwilling to actually work at a job you applied for, something more than compensation is driving the lack of performance.

That's an excellent point.

In my prior work in a senior corporate management position, I had the pleasure of managing an office of 50-60 people that shared an unusual combination of characteristics:

1. They were somewhat underpaid for their profession.
2. We had the lowest turnover of any office in the company during the 5+ years I was there.

Item #1 was a function of the competitive nature of our work and the long-term contracts we had that limited how much we could pay most of the staff. I went out of my way to compensate them in ways that didn't show up as payroll-related expenses -- I offered flex-time and work-from-home options before they became a common thing during COVID, let middle managers and team leaders take their employees out to work on the company's dime, let them take an extra few days at conferences for sightseeing/tourism, etc.

We were still very profitable even with these "hidden" expenses because these were dedicated, loyal, and highly productive employees.

103 posted on 08/18/2023 8:54:43 AM PDT by Alberta's Child (“Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.”)
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To: poinq
I am told its far worse now.

Everyone in NY has to take a sex ed video. We use the NYC one online that anyone can search for and take. It's beyond ridiculous. I'm with you, Corporate America has gone bonkers signing on to this crap.

Related, these high end stores that are getting robbed by flash mobs are going to go out of business if people don't feel safe visiting those stores. Instead of kow towing, they should put armed guards around the store with sidearms.

104 posted on 08/18/2023 8:57:55 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: Tennessee Nana

Solution is simple.
Make all illegals second class citizens. They can vote (Democrat) and receive some rights. Then Make Spanish the second language of the nation. To be taught in special work zones schools. Others would have Arabic and Chinese. Each zone would have its own laws and rules. All TV shows must hire only Black actors for commercials and shows (LGBQZ Too). NFL should only hire Black players.


105 posted on 08/18/2023 8:59:59 AM PDT by Forward the Light Brigade ( Ride to the sound of the Guns!)
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To: Carriage Hill

One of the Home Depots around here has “NO LOITERING” signs in English AND Spanish in their parking lot. They must enforce it, too, because I never see any day laborers hanging out there.


106 posted on 08/18/2023 9:00:19 AM PDT by brianl703
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To: Worldtraveler once upon a time
This is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics website:

The labor force participation rate represents the number of people in the labor force as a percentage of the civilian noninstitutional population. In other words, the participation rate is the percentage of the population that is either working or actively looking for work. The labor force participation rate is calculated as: (Labor Force ÷ Civilian Noninstitutional Population) x 100.

The civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and older is the base population group, or universe, used for Current Population Survey (CPS) statistics published by BLS.

The civilian noninstitutional population excludes the following:

- active duty members of the U.S. Armed Forces
- people confined to, or living in, institutions or facilities such as prisons, jails, and other correctional institutions and detention centers, and residential care facilities such as skilled nursing homes

Included in the civilian noninstitutional population are citizens of foreign countries who reside in the United States but do not live on the premises of an embassy.

So the "civilian noninstitutional population" is actually even more meaningless than I thought. It includes elderly people not living in nursing homes, non-citizens, college students and even many high school students.

107 posted on 08/18/2023 9:01:29 AM PDT by Alberta's Child (“Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.”)
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To: Forward the Light Brigade

You willing to pay for all that ???


108 posted on 08/18/2023 9:01:54 AM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: brianl703
One of the Home Depots around here has “NO LOITERING” signs in English AND Spanish in their parking lot. They must enforce it, too, because I never see any day laborers hanging out there.

The HD's in Colonie and Rotterdam NY have dozens of illegals out in front looking for work after nyc mayor adams dropped off a 400-600 of them

109 posted on 08/18/2023 9:02:15 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: Alberta's Child

Non-taxable benefits are worth a pile in a system set up to tax the snot out of everything in sight.

When in Zanzibar, roll with the rules of Zanzibar.

(I may be slightly off in your official local—but it is someplace with not as good a rep as ALberta, but better than what can be found between NYC and Philly).


110 posted on 08/18/2023 9:02:49 AM PDT by Hieronymus
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To: Ultra Sonic 007
Sorry -- I need to correct one item from that last post. LOL.

... let middle managers and team leaders take their employees out to work lunch on the company's dime ...

111 posted on 08/18/2023 9:05:03 AM PDT by Alberta's Child (“Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.”)
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To: Hieronymus
LOL. Thanks.

Non-taxable benefits are worth a pile in a system set up to tax the snot out of everything in sight.

The key is to fold the benefits into something that is clearly work-related. Conferences and on-site courses that are offered in travel destinations are a good example of this.

112 posted on 08/18/2023 9:07:22 AM PDT by Alberta's Child (“Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.”)
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To: poinq
I was being paid a lot.

You are such a hero.

113 posted on 08/18/2023 9:09:29 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: Alberta's Child
The two links I sent you clarify this. I will agree that the BLS site is confused, inept and goes on too much.

We shall agree on something fundamental -- "...the "civilian noninstitutional population" is actually even more meaningless than I thought. It includes elderly people not living in nursing homes, non-citizens, college students and even many high school students."

During the Covid "event" as I call it, I used such simple arithmetic to show that all the "official" hysteria was simple hysteria. Cutting through the "co-morbidities" and methods from the WHO to increase a diagnosis of a Covid death through all sorts of taxonomic tricks, the BLS -- and more specifically the government at many levels -- is inept, jargon-laden and confusing.

Would one have a simple range -- say 18 to 70 -- as a population against which to compare actual employment, an argument can be made.

For this reason, the "shadow stat" guys are working to earlier methodologies and taxonomies to show how full of malarkey much of the current "data" and pronouncements are.

They suggest that a truer unemplyment rate is circa 25%. Source: https://www.shadowstats.com/

And: https://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts

114 posted on 08/18/2023 9:33:11 AM PDT by Worldtraveler once upon a time (Degrow government)
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To: central_va; Alberta's Child
Labor is a commodity.

The concept of labor being a commodity under capitalism is the opinion of Marx and Engels, so needless to say I'd be wary of adopting that idea.

Needless to say, the work you expend cannot be 'bought back' after you 'sell it', as compared to how you can buy back other material commodities. If labor is a commodity, it is fundamentally different from all others (from economic, legal, and practical standpoints).

Want a harder working employee? Pay more.

By this metric, those who are paid the most "work the most", when any anecdotal evidence will tell you that's not necessarily the case in terms of effort expended.

Sometimes, you can't pay people enough to overcome their laziness or unwillingness to work.

115 posted on 08/18/2023 9:36:49 AM PDT by Ultra Sonic 007 (There is nothing new under the sun.)
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To: Ultra Sonic 007
The concept of labor being a commodity under capitalism is the opinion of Marx and Engels, so needless to say I'd be wary of adopting that idea.

Lol. Tell that to my Econ 101 professor back in the day. He was no Marxist.

116 posted on 08/18/2023 9:38:41 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: brianl703

I remember seeing “No Loitering” signs at HD, but they magically disappeared, and the illegal alien criminal crowd got larger.


117 posted on 08/18/2023 9:40:42 AM PDT by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: Ultra Sonic 007
Needless to say, the work you expend cannot be 'bought back' after you 'sell it', as compared to how you can buy back other material commodities.

LOL. This is almost childish logic. Gasoline is a commodity that you can't buy back once you use it.

It is amazing their are Freepers, the R rock base, can't understand the concept of a free market for labor. Wow.

118 posted on 08/18/2023 9:41:16 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: Ultra Sonic 007
their are = there are

Fixed it.

119 posted on 08/18/2023 9:41:45 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: Hieronymus
There is a solution suggested in a book I heard of once. He who does not work should not eat.

There's an awful lot of fat people around not working, living large in government paid housing, driving nice cars and with the latest iPhones that need to be cut off the government dole and told to get their fat asses to work or they're gonna starve.

Come to think of it, that'd be a pretty good way to combat the obesity problem here in America... Just sayin'.

120 posted on 08/18/2023 9:43:24 AM PDT by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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