Does the American Economy Need Immigrant Workers?
There are two opposing positions on the American economy’s need for immigrant workers. Some economists review the 1970s rapid growth in workers and jobs and assert that the United States faces labor shortages in the 1990s as the percentage of elderly grows, the participation of women in the work force levels off, and as the number of teenagers who enter the labor market shrinks. Other economists assert that labor-saving machinery, the growing use of part-time workers and flexible hours, later retirements, and the shifting of low-wage jobs overseas may lead to a surplus of unskilled workers. The “labor shortage” proponents believe that today’s immigrants will be tomorrow’s answer to labor shortages; while the “labor surplus” school argues that today’s immigrants will add to tomorrow’s unemployment problems. An article of faith for may economists is that a market economy cannot suffer long from shortages because prices and wages change to eliminate them. A shortage, by definition, requir
