Chicago – March 06, 2024
Businesses across the US have pleaded with Washington for years to allow more legal immigration to boost the supply of workers. Lawmakers, attuned to anti-immigration sentiment among voters thanks to a jump in unauthorized arrivals, haven’t responded to those pleas.
The poisoned atmosphere ahead of November’s elections has already derailed one compromise bill aimed at getting a handle on the chaotic situation at the US-Mexico border and stymied any chance of legislation to bolster legal immigration to alleviate the worker shortage.
How does this situation look by the numbers?
1.4: That’s how many job vacancies there are for each unemployed worker in the US.
780,000: The number of white-collar employees entered into the H-1B visa lottery for the 2023 fiscal year; only a quarter succeeded.
More than 360: Immigration bills that have been introduced in Congress this year, according to the website GovTrack.us.
$7 trillion: That’s how much the Congressional Budget Office says the current surge in immigration will add to the US economy over the coming decade by expanding the labor force and adding demand.
This issue isn’t going away soon. As baby boomers retire and birthrates fall, US employers will need more foreign workers.
“It’s really a shame that politics gets in the way of something that everybody agrees is a problem,” says Edwin Egee, vice president for government relations and workforce development at the National Retail Federation.
