{"id":31133,"date":"2022-09-06T23:49:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-06T23:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=31133"},"modified":"2022-09-07T20:40:25","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T20:40:25","slug":"legal-work-related-immigration-has-fallen-by-a-third-since-2020-contributing-to-us-labor-shortages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/legal-work-related-immigration-has-fallen-by-a-third-since-2020-contributing-to-us-labor-shortages\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal work-related immigration has fallen by a third since 2020, contributing to US labor\u00a0shortages"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jose Ivan Rodriguez-Sanchez<\/a>, Rice University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Americans having fewer children<\/a> and the nation\u2019s labor force getting older<\/a>, many employers in manufacturing<\/a>, aviation<\/a> and other industries are having trouble finding enough workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gap between the demand for labor and its supply was already forming in 2017<\/a>. By 2018, the U.S. economy had increasingly more job openings<\/a> than unemployed workers. That gap has widened during the COVID-19 pandemic<\/a> as more people have died<\/a>, retired early<\/a> or simply dropped out of the job market<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By July 2022, as the pandemic\u2019s effects on the workplace were easing, the U.S. had 11.2 million job openings<\/a> but only 5.7 million unemployed workers<\/a> who might fill them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m a scholar of immigration and economics<\/a> who researches a trend that\u2019s driving labor shortages: declining numbers of immigrants allowed to legally work<\/a> in the U.S. When I study these numbers, I see an important opportunity to resolve labor shortages that are wreaking economic havoc<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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