[Views from Ithaca] The Jobs Market Isn't as Healthy as it Seems

Except the jobs those immigrants , mostly illegal are doing is in the construction related jobs in residential construction which is a largely unregulated industry in terms of labor …. they aren't building cars.

Your idea of teaching trades would be a great one …. accept that puts many of them in direct competition with those illegals.

I went over this in a previous post explaining my persona experiences as a business owner - the impact illegal labor had on my company , initially changing my business model , a greater than 50% drop in revenue in the first year and eventually my decision to liquidate.
Its nearly impossible to compete with companies who use illegal labor while you are paying American workers a fair wage. $9hr , no insurance , no retirement , no SSI/FICA , no unemployment , no overtime while they work 16 hour days …. and do it happily , just pay me cash! while I'm paying American experienced workers $35hr or more along with their helpers ~$12-15 plus all those other expenses.

So you have displaced thousands of American workers from trades that have historically put roofs over peoples heads and food on the table …. while at the same time depressed wages due to all that illegal labor.

So now that Americans are priced out of those jobs , they are out doing something else - less lucrative and are often entry level jobs …. flipping burgers or what have you , stuff traditionally done by kids.

Then we have the issue of the reduction of retail jobs due to online sales ….


Illegal labor isn't building cars or working union jobs.

 

My wife is a commercial insurance executive , she got my son an internship at the agency she worked for when he was 15. He did well enough that they hired him part time while he was in school , then full time once he graduated and were flexible enough that he was able to go to college too.

He's now 21 and pulls in about 80k while finishing his degree ….

 

Illegal immigrants arent building office buildings either

They are about 5% of the workforce
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/11/us/undocumented-immigrant-workers.html

 

You don't create "executive level positions" …. The Executives create them for themselves.

To be honest , Capitalism cant be fixed not to the satisfaction of …. those who are unhappy with the current status.

We've created a system where the vast majority works for someone else …. and someone else is always willing to do the job cheaper.

And its only getting worse with automation and these massive information companies stick their fingers in each and every pie.

We're stuck with the Ultra Rich and …. everybody else.

 

@Corrosion

The article i posted says illegal immigrants are in low paying jobs like farming and construction.

As far as trades are concerned, construction isnt low paying so i really dont get that. That's kind of my point and a lot of construction requires skill. Regardless Americans cant do those jobs. Americans dont learn carpet laying for instance.

Even in the residential arena where im sure a lot of illegal immigrants are working, it still takes skill to do some of those jobs and they still arent cheap. Thats not a justification for hiring them, its a statement on the economics. They may be cheap(er), but they aren't cheap

Edi: this article is calling undocumented workers making $15 and $20 an hr cheap. Thats far from cheap

The city of Houston pays skilled workers $18 and trades upwards of $25 an hr

 

Not true at all - https://www.ft.com/content/dec677c0-b7e6-11e6-ba85-95d1533d9a62

Shows that US is producing more in manufacturing, just using a lot less people to do it. Productivity actually keeps jobs here since it makes it more efficient to make goods in the US than overseas (shipping costs) but it just takes a lot less people to do it. Think about it - how do you make a $50/hr worker equal to a $5/hr worker? If the $50/hr worker produces 10x more it's a wash.

Illegal immigrants boast our economy. They work jobs others don't want. Georgia's economy suffered when it cracked down on illegal immigrants who were picking fruits. That rose costs and hurt the entire state costing more jobs.

You simply do not understand how the economy works and are just parroting right-wing talking points

 

Specially talking about illegal immigrants vs immigrants.

 

I did specify residential construction.

But you'd be shocked as to how many are employed by those major construction firms. I've managed quite a few of those projects over the years including the Herman Hospital Annex …

This is also a major contributor to identity theft.

Another issue is Visa abuse.

I worked for a major Houston manufacturer with ~1200ish employees , 85% or so were here on Visa. Only the office people , management , lead positions being American citizens.
Thing is , to qualify for those visa's the induvial must have a bachelors degree or greater in the field or a related one , these cats couldn't spell cat.
This company leases what was at one time a hotel in an outlying municipality to house these people and transport them to and from , they stay here 9 months then return to their country of origin for 3 months. The company charges them rent and transport fees. They go home with about $3000 each …. for 9 months of work , some having done so for 25 years.

They do this thru 5 shell companies posing as temporary agencies.

 

The difference between them doesn't appear that great but is ignoring the other costs of an employee - SSI/ FICA , insurance , retirement , unemployment and PTO / vacation.

If you are hiring an employee @ $50k a year , he's going to cost you nearly half that again in related costs. That's a huge difference in bottom line.

As for why Americans aren't doing more residential construction today , I'm sure the majority of it is financial but we've also gone thru a period starting in the late 80's where the trades were lost and forgotten as a result of the finances. At least that's my theory on the matter.

My first job was installing hardwood floors , the company I worked for did George HW Bush's house in River Oaks … I met him again some 35+ years later and he recalled what he had given me the last day we were on the job.

 

94% of new jobs are temp, gig, or contact work with no stability, middling wages, and zero benefits.

Only 1 in 5 Americans has any meaningful amount of wealth in the stock market, and GDP is to national wellbeing what BMI is to personal wellbeing (i.e. outdated and completely irrelevant).

The economy of 2020 hasn't fundamentally changed in any way, it is essentially just more of what it was in 2016, and that was enough to get a once-in-a-lifetime protest vote candidate in office.

Donald Trump cannot win on the economy. He needs help from Democrats.

 

People with relevant skills in relevant areas are doing just fine.

Entitlement is a state of mind. Again, sucks the world changes. Did you know the rust belt got that name before NAFTA? Long time to be rusting...

Rural areas... been dwindling over a century. Can’t fight the trends but just get stuck.

 

I pretty much stopped at the $50/hr workers. Where do I find these? I know lots of people who would love to have them.

Freight costs are pretty minimal. How else do you think you're getting those $.99 shipping costs from china for a single item? Sure, its subsidized, but the economics is built in somewhere.

The answer is simple: Leftist insist we do not employ illegals and they also insist businesses pay their ZERO skilled laborers middle class living wages. Freight costs from 3rd world countries is a bargain.

Democrats insist Illegal immigrants should not work. Should businesses be allowed to use illegals or should we harshly punished these businesses and shut them down. I am so confused what the running narrative is these days.

lel. Pot. Meet Kettle.

 

Yep. Thumb your nose at the working class at your own peril.

The results are in -- retraining is a massive failure.

You can take this information in one of two ways.

1) The problem is with the millions of displaced workers
or
2) The problem is deeper than that and we need to re-think humanity's relationship with the market

_____

I can think of no quicker way route to Trump's re-election than by calling millions of disaffected, blue-collar Americans lazy and entitled.

 

Try clicking on the link before responding

 

Which is why we should push for positive change. I know exactly who you speak of.

 

These machines should be made in america and watched over and maintained by americans... there will be more jobs created. And there will always be work and it should be on american soil with americans benefitting.

And where are you getting your info on english majors? What are the odds of making a lot of money with just an english degree? And is that without a law degree added? Honestly curious where you learned that? Did a boomer tell you that? Last I checked, STEM field degrees are the best bet.

 

I think you're missing Lou's point about critical thinking:

"And I will tell you the most useless degree people get is in business where they learn a bunch of useless ideas about how to do business that has to be unlearned and they have a lack of critical thinking. You know who perform the best? English and Philosophy majors. Go figure. If you want to be successful in business don't get a degree in business (unless its accounting)."

 

Im not paying a subscription fee for your biased articles.

 

Yup , it’s about who you know not necessarily what you know .... now , you can’t be a total ****off and still have to be competent to KEEP a job . But getting your foot in the door is important.

There has always been an element of “who you know” , but as young people we are sold on a meritocracy and seeing the real truth is pretty disheartening.

 

Capitalism (capital) is dumb like water; like how water follows gravity, capital follows growth.

Guess where most of the growth has been since the world rebuilt itself after WW2? Outside of the US. We had a great golden age emerging from WW2, but now the world can compete and we got our lip stick out...

We sucked at transitioning to advanced economy because of human nature, which is entitlement. We have an Old America vs New America situation, the latter is thriving.