U6 unemployment is still above 7% the work participation rate in the U.S. is still at near historic lows. There's nearly 95 million legal American citizens without a job that could work if they had employment.
@txradioguy Why aren't they taking the jobs that are out there, then?
And note that part of the labor-participation-rate drop is that we have a higher percentage of retirees now. They still count.
Also, the jobs available are those where the income from them with taxation is insufficient to support a person, given costs of housing, food, etc. If you suggest that perhaps the wages should be raised, and would be raised if there wasn't such a willing labor pool, then that would mean product prices would have to rise.
...but there's this thing called The Invisible Hand, and a merchant can't just unilaterally raise prices just because his costs are high. There's a market price, and if we can't compete, then we can't sell.
And what's to stop our competitors from grabbing lower cost labor and making a more competitive product?
So it's not so simple as many people would try to make it.
Certainly, we have to cut taxation and other business costs. But immigration is going to have to be a big part of being competitive if Americans aren't willing to cut their wages to be competitive.
There are more than enough Americans to fill the job positions employers are needing filled. Stop with your distortions.
I'm curious where you're from, that you drop the "to be". That's often a Pittsburgh/Ohio thing, but it's been noted as far away as Indiana and Kansas City. It was a topic of conversation in my office yesterday and again today, and now I see it here! ^-^
