Looking Past Dismal Jobs Report

For the second consecutive month, Wall Street analysts and media business forecasters badly missed the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ job creation total.

Dow Jones projected 500,000 new jobs for September, compared to the 194,000 new jobs reported by the Joe Biden administration. Television commentators were aghast at their second straight whiff – in August, the socalled experts predicted 720,000 new jobs, while the economy created just 235,000 jobs.

No surprise that COVID-19 took the brunt of the blame for the steep declines, particularly among workers in education and local/ state employment, but also among bus drivers, food service workers and substitute teachers. Another variable that added to the dismal September results was the disappearance from the labor force of many older, low-wage workers still fearful about COVID-19 and its delta variant.

A historic 11 million jobs are open and available. As far as the economy and job creation are concerned, the U.S. is still in COVID-19’s grasp.

“We’re hiring” signs are everywhere, yet few workers have stepped up to fill the jobs. Although openings are at or near an all-time record, one hurdle to attracting employees is that many of the positions require in-person work for construction, hospitality, delivery services or warehousing, the exact types of jobs too many Americans shun in the current environment.

Thanks to the pandemic fear that the government and scaremongering media have instilled in the general public, potential workers continue to stay away from close-contact employment. Consequently, most job seekers are hopeful of finding mostly unavailable remote work. A recent review of the ZipRecruiter website found that only one in 10 postings offered remote employment.

When workers are in short supply, the clarion call for more immigration inevitably follows. Bill Kristol, for example, once a conservative, now a Democrat, and always an immigration advocate, put out a tweet that proclaimed immigration could solve the economy’s employment doldrums. Kristol wrote: “We can debate infrastructure, tax policy, government spending, etc. But it’s not a close call as to the one thing that would do the most for our economy across the board: More immigration. Both ‘skilled’ and ‘unskilled.’ Which the Administration and Congress have done nothing on.”

Well – not exactly nothing. Kristol must not be paying attention to the immigration news. Encouraging illegal immigration, bringing Afghan evacuees to the U.S. and raising the refugee cap are definitely something. Soon the U.S. will have a worker surplus. The 15,000 Haitians who surged the border, the 50,000 or more Afghanistan evacuees and the 125,000 refugees that Biden has committed to for fiscal 2021-22, and the 2 million released-at-the-border illegal aliens will inevitably receive employment authorization.

Also on their way to compete for jobs are the annual 1 millionplus legal immigrants who, as part of their permanent residency, receive lifetime valid work permits. Finally, add about 700,000 guest workers who traditionally enter the U.S. to perform jobs that range from medical doctors to agriculture-based employees.

The approximately 1 million legal and 2 million illegal immigrants, the evacuees, the refugees and the guest workers will go a long way to making Kristol and the immigration lobby’s dreams come true. And if Congress passes the reconciliation bill it’s kicking around, about 8 million more aliens will be granted amnesty, receive legal status and work permits. COVID-19 restrictions could impact the foreign-born arrivals, but illegal immigrant amnesty candidates already represent several million work permits.

High immigration and the lower wages immigrants earn harm those who can least withstand economic setbacks – American Blacks, Hispanics, other minorities, the disabled, recently arrived low-skilled legal immigrants and others without a college degree.

More immigration, regardless of how much it may hurt Americans who fund it, is the blueprint the Biden administration has, to the disappointment of most, chosen to follow, and is committed to.

Joe Guzzardi is a Progressives for Immigration Reform analyst. His column is distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.