Labor shortage or Immigrant shortage?

US employers agree that it's a hard time to find and retain talent. Workers are decamping at record rates and millions of jobs are left unfilled. One reason for this imbalance has flown under the radar: Immigration to the US is plummeting. This shift could pose enormous long-term implications for the job market. 

By the middle of the last decade, the country was adding around 1 million immigrants a year. This later slowed down during the Trump administration and then hit a brick wall when the pandemic erupted in 2020. David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Funds said, "This decline reflects both tougher immigration policies and the pandemic which reduced legal immigration and caused some recent immigrants to return to their native countries."

After covid 19, most travel was shut down and the immigration processing stopped. Many foreign workers returned to their home countries. As a result, immigration fell to half of its 2016 level; last year, it fell to just over a quarter. The US workforce has 2 million fewer immigrants than it would have if immigration had continued at pre-pandemic levels. This gap is seen especially in low-paying industries like leisure and hospitality, food services retail and healthcare. Sectors that are especially reliant on immigrants had significantly higher rates of unfilled jobs in 2021. Research shows that one in five nurses, one in four health aides, and nearly one in two housekeepers and gardeners is an immigrant. 

Source: CBS News