Current Immigration Policy Likely to Extend Jobs Recession
Journalist and blogger David Frum commented on a recent Washington Post blog that concludes it will take more than 11 years for the economy to generate the number of jobs needed to replace the jobs lost in the current recession and create jobs for the average population growth of 125,000 per month. Frum makes the connection that the Washington Post failed to make -- the population growth of 125,000 per month comes from current immigration policy.
Frum wrote:
That 125,000 per month increase in the US labor force is not a law of nature. In fact, during the Bush years, more than half the growth in the US labor force was due to the arrival of immigrant labor.
Immigrants now make up some 15% of the US labor force. They are concentrated in the less skilled portion of the labor force and in industries hardest hit, especially construction.
If immigration levels were curtailed, the job gap would be a lot smaller. And if illegal immigrants returned home, rather than being put on a "path to citizenship," the problem of putting the unemployed back to work would be smaller and easier.
Frum's blog can be found at FrumForum.com.