Does immigration affect unemployment?
WASHINGTON — The Labor Department said Friday the unemployment rate was 3.9 percent, near the 18-year low set in May, and employers are adding jobs at a faster pace than last year.
President Donald Trump has made clear employers should be trying to attract American workers through wage increases and other incentives, not filling jobs with immigrants.
“Curbing immigration is essential to growing wages and ensuring available jobs go to American workers, not foreign workers,” Deputy White House Press Secretary Hogan Gidley told AP. “As immigration curbs are put into place, more and more Americans will be absorbed back into the workforce, especially those who have been left out due to poor work history or difficult life circumstances.”
But as employers try to fill openings, migrants are coming in search of work.
Hotel and restaurant owner Todd Callewaert is short more than two dozen workers this season for his Mackinac Island, Mich., businesses. “You can’t hire a line cook right now; it’s impossible, even for 20 bucks an hour,” he said. “We usually fill the gap with visa workers, but we can’t even get those this year.”
The administration has made it harder to come to the U.S. for work, legally or otherwise. Work visas are costly, complicated and limited. Visas are capped at 66,000 annually, with 15,000 additional visas this year.
This summer, the administration adopted a “zero-tolerance” policy, prosecuting those crossing the border illegally. It resulted in nearly 3,000 children separated from their parents at the border. Trump eventually stopped the separations and the government was forced by a judge to reunify families.
Still, tens of thousands of people cross the border illegally every month, many seeking asylum from violence. But often, they’re coming because of the prospect of work.
Dala Edilson Ba Juc traveled with his 12-year-old daughter from Guatemala — only to be separated from her at the border, reunited and deported home. Sitting at an immigration facility in Guatemala City, he said they came for work.
“I needed to try to make a better life for my family — I wanted them to have what I could not give them here,” he said. “There are many, many jobs in the States.”
Frandy Frauville, 35, joined a wave of Haitians who came to Tijuana, Mexico, from Brazil starting in 2016. Brazil welcomed Haitians after Haiti’s 2010 earthquake. But Frauville grew tired of factory jobs in Mexico that barely allowed him to cover rent and food, and, lured by the prospects of better work and joining family near Miami, he lined up with his 5-year-old daughter at a border crossing.“I’ll take whatever I can get,” he said.
Many economists say immigration is good for the economy. Despite Trump’s push, some business owners say they just can’t get Americans to fill the jobs.
A.J. Erskine is vice president of Cowart Seafood Group, which includes a Virginia oyster company of about 75 employees. “Entry-level is $12.13 an hour,” he said. “I don’t know how much higher we can go without being unable to sell oysters.” He said the company has been in business more than 50 years.
Some, like Erksine, are willing to front the cost associated with a temporary work visa, about $4,000 per employee for workers holding down seasonal, non-agricultural jobs.
Those turning a blind eye to immigration status, or hiring people with false identification, face crackdowns by immigration agents. “It’s not worth the risk for us to hire people we’re not sure about,” said Callewaert, the hotel and restaurant owner. But a lack of staff means the business can’t grow, he said.
Rep. Dave Brat, R-Virginia., said he does not think the lower unemployment rate would weaken efforts to restrict illegal immigration. “The irony is it makes it more transparent what the real problem of the labor market is,” Brat said, citing about 10 million Americans not in the labor force. He called for improved education and work requirements for food stamp recipients to get more of these Americans in the workforce.
“The answer is not to bring in 10 million folks from abroad,” Brat said.
