Could foreign workers unlock America's tight labor market?

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 November 2022

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

The U.S. economy added 261,000 jobs in October, meaning there are still about two jobs available for each unemployed person. Could expanding the H2-B visa program for temporary foreign workers help America's tight labor market?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:12.2	This is the Indicator from Planet Money, I'm Darien Woods.
0:14.8	I'm Whale and Wong, and it is Jobs Friday!
0:19.4	Love Jobs Friday, all the numbers!
0:21.6	The monthly jobs report is out today, and it showed that the US economy added 261,000
0:27.1	jobs in October.
0:28.6	The unemployment rate rose slightly to 3.7%, but there's still 1.9 jobs for every one
0:35.2	unemployed person.
0:36.6	Some of these jobs are ones that businesses have trouble filling with American workers,
0:41.1	even when they advertise widely, or raise wages.
0:44.7	And a potential solution for this hiring shortfall is immigration.
0:48.7	Now, there are lots of ways foreign workers come to the US.
0:52.6	One of them is a visa program that businesses from vacation resorts to seafood processors
0:57.6	rely on to staff their busy seasons.
1:00.6	Today on the show, we will learn about this program with the potential to alleviate staffing
1:06.2	shortages.
1:07.2	And we look at new economic research that shows when businesses hire foreign workers through
1:12.2	this program, they end up actually creating new jobs for Americans.
1:21.3	For years, temporary foreign workers have been coming to the US for months at a time to
1:25.8	process salmon and Alaska and pick crabs in Maryland.
1:29.6	They clean hotel rooms and work in the kitchens of ski resorts in the winter and beach resorts
1:34.4	in the summer.
	...

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