The US is facing a labor shortage — immigration is the solution

The Hill ^ | 08/18/2023 | OHANNES LANG AND ZUZANA CEPLA

[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.

[Alberta's Child]

Pay more. People will work harder and get training on their own.

This is a ludicrous, tone-deaf statement to make about someone who is 25-35 years old and can't even bother showing up to work on time.

[Alberta's Child]

Pay more. People will relocate for better opportunity. I have done that 4 times in my working life.

It will take 5-7 years to build the housing to accommodate all those people who are relocating. Nobody (neither the employers nor the prospective employees) is going to wait that long.

Instead, the standard practice is for the employer to consider: (1) increasingly automated processes, and/or (2) relocation of the entire business.

[central_va]

This is a ludicrous, tone-deaf statement to make about someone who is 25-35 years old and can't even bother showing up to work on time.

Projecting much? Fascists and Stalinists want to control wages. Welcome to the USSA comrade.

[kaktuskid]

Automation is the answer for worker shortages…especially in agriculture.

[Rockingham]

The cure for a labor shortage is to improve productivity, to improve working conditions, and to pay employees better. After a couple of decades of cost-cutting, most companies do not have a clue how to organize and treat their employees so as to keep them aboard and make them more productive.

[central_va]

The US is facing a labor shortage — immigration is the solution

I am sure the GOP steering committee is busy bolting this whopper into the new Republican Party Platform.

[central_va]

It will take 5-7 years to build the housing to accommodate all those people who are relocating.

Economic opportunity. Small minded globalists are killing the GOP which is filled with them.

[FlingWingFlyer]

You just hit something on the head. America needs more illegals because nobody wants to hire white people anymore. Besides, white people don’t want to work. They’re all up at Yellowstone playing with the bears and buffalo or falling over the edge at Grand Canyon. Look at the garbage ads on TV. America doesn’t look like that. Never has.

[Carriage Hill]

I don’t frequent HD anymore, either; occasionally will stop into Lowe’s if there’s not a crowd. Parking at both stores was in the acres, so never a problem.

[Tennessee Nana]

I just realized I misread the comment by Cincinnatus.45-70

I read it as making illegal alien aliens into IMMIGRANTS

Illegal aliens should be rounded up and deported ...

There are no such thing as ‘lawful’ IMMIGRANTS

There are no adjective IMMIGRANTS

Just IMMIGRANTS

A foreigner either IMMIGRATES

or they dont...

In that case they are either a lawfully entering IDed visitor with a departure date

or they are an illegal alien..

IMMIGRATION doesnt start here in our country

IMIGRATION starts at the US Embassy or consulate in their own country...

Just about everything to be an American citizen is completed in the IMMIGRANT’S own country

After he or she arrives there is just a need for time in our country, an interview and the test to be accomplished to be an AMerican citizen.

Millions of very good, well vetted working people have IMMIGRATED to America for many years...

What makes these unemployable criminals who jumped the line and the turnstile so special ???

[bobbo666]

Yah, there is no shortage. Just cut out the crappola and raise the salary.

However, you will end up hiring a lot of white folk.

[Alberta's Child]

Economic opportunity.

It's an economic opportunity that is impeded by overly burdensome government regulations in the land development process.

And maybe that's not a bad thing, either. I'm seeing more and more signs that we are migrating back to the days when people worked for an employer and lived in company-owned homes. So get ready for an ugly monstrosity of a high-density housing complex right across the road from that warehouse or manufacturing plant in your town.

[central_va]

Millions of very good, well vetted working people have IMMIGRATED to America for many years...

Explain to me how importing more labor helps the American worker in any way. Give me one benefit.

THE ONLY PURPOSE FOR LEGAL IMMIGRATION IS TO INCREASE THE LABOR POOL AND PUSH WAGES DOWN - PERIOD.

When we start importing lawyers, pundits and media types immigration will stop immediately.

[Ultra Sonic 007]

AC: This is a ludicrous, tone-deaf statement to make about someone who is 25-35 years old and can't even bother showing up to work on time.

CVA: Projecting much? Fascists and Stalinists want to control wages. Welcome to the USSA comrade.

Speaking as someone with a past career in retail, I saw the wage situation of a chain store from both ends: from the entry-level stocker to that of the hourly supervisor.

There were some people who always gave it their all, and were totally dependable no matter what their shift was. (And this was not exclusive to age group, either; there were young folks just starting out and old folks who had done this their entire lives who worked their butts off.)

A lot of others — mostly of younger generations — gamed the system as to how often they could call out from their shift without getting penalized for it.

If you're unwilling to actually work at a job you applied for, something more than compensation is driving the lack of performance.

(And this is notwithstanding the various anecdotes of those — legion since the COVID lockdowns — who would prefer to get meager pay just for being a layabout than to make more at an entry-level job if it meant working 40 hours a week.)

[dragonblustar]

Maybe you live in the Hamptons but I can tell you that the average whites where I’m at are being squeezed by big corps and progressives. Maybe your liberal friends are spoiled.

[Alberta's Child]

Projecting much?

Absolutely not. I hear -- and experience -- real-world stories like this all the time.

See the link in Post #53. That sure as hell isn't "projecting."

[lurk]

We are paying tens of millions of citizens to stay home and guard their couches. If we told them their freebies run out in six months, the economy would get stimulated.

[central_va]

Anyone that is hiring employees and not getting the quality of applicant they desire has to raise the wages being offered. PERIOD.

Labor is a commodity. Want a nicer car? Pay more. Want a harder working employee? Pay more.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

--- "The biggest contributor to the declining labor force participation rate is RETIREMENT."

Not as I find it, in their own site's info. Oner reads....

Under "Characteristics", "Persons who are neither employed nor unemployed are not in the labor force. This category includes retired persons...."

Source: https://www.bls.gov/cps/lfcharacteristics.htm

"While studying employment, another important figure to determine is the labor force participation rate. Here, we compare the size of the labor force with the number of people that could potentially be a part of the labor force. It is important to note that we do not include people under the age of 16 in this figure. In addition, students, retirees, the disabled, homemakers, and the voluntarily idle are not counted in the labor force. The labor force as the percentage of the total population over the minimum working age is called labor force participation rate."

Source: https://www.econport.org/content/handbook/Unemployment/Define.html

[central_va]

A thread like this shows how deeply embedded the hatred of the working class is in the mainstream GOP .

Explains this guy.