Want to “Do Something” About Jobs Lost During the Recession? Reserve Them for U.S. Citizens
October 13, 2009
by Phil Cafaro
Since December, 2007, the U.S economy has lost 8 and ¼ million jobs. According to the latest official figures, U.S. unemployment hit 9.8% in September and it continues to rise.
Why, in the midst of the highest unemployment rates in 26 years, is the federal government continuing to issue visas to job seekers from overseas? What possible reason could there be to green light the importation of hundreds of thousands of new workers annually, when there are insufficient jobs for American citizens who are already here?
According to a recent article in the New York Times, the Obama administration is considering a variety of measures to try to create jobs, and to continue aid programs for Americans who have been out of work long-term (“As Job Loss Rises, Obama Aides Act to Fix Safety Net,” 10/6, at www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/us/politics/06jobless.html).
I support extending unemployment benefits and preserving the option for unemployed workers to get health insurance through the COBRA program. And some of the proposals to try to encourage job creation may make sense—although there doesn’t seem to be consensus about the most effective ways to do so, and the federal government appeared to be going broke even without expensive new job-creation programs.
But I thought the first rule of intelligent decision-making was this: when you are in a hole, stop digging. America is in an unemployment hole right now. We have millions fewer jobs than we need to keep our population gainfully employed. This difficult situation appears likely to get worse before it gets better. Given this, I see no reason to make it even worse by bringing in hundreds of thousands more job seekers to chase jobs that don’t exist—and to drive wages down for the jobs that do.
What is needed is a temporary immigration time-out for all non-essential and non-asylum immigration cases. Such a time-out could be set to last for one or two years, when the economy is predicted to be significantly improved. Or it could be timed to run as long as the U.S. unemployment rate stayed above 5 or 6%.
According to the Times article, a wide variety of “job creation” strategies are being considered by the Obama administration. These include giving employers a $3,000 tax credit for each new hire and retaining the popular $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers that was included in the stimulus package passed earlier this year. Combined with extending unemployment and health benefits that are otherwise due to expire at the end of this year, the costs of implementing these proposals could add up to several hundred billion dollars.
In contrast, putting an immigration moratorium in place would actually save the government money (by eliminating the cost of processing several million visa applications and tracking visa holders). Given the reality of budget deficits and limited resources, an immigration moratorium seems to make good sense. At a minimum, this frugal “job creation” strategy should be up for consideration by the Obama administration and Congress.
