Those Dang Illegal Immigrants Taking All of Our Jobs
Via TJIC and Mark Perry come this excellent observation:
State unemployment rates for April were released last week by the
BLS, and there are now 18 states that have set historical record-low
jobless rates in the last yearHere are the 18 states with historical record-low jobless rates"¦
"¦California: 4.7% in November 2006
"¦Arizona: 3.9% in March 2007
"¦New Mexico: 3.5% in February 2007
"¦Texas: 4.2% in April 2007"¦
I wonder where our economy would be without those 15 million Mexican immigrants. Negative unemployment?
Jim Collins:
I believe that the unemployment figures are determined by counting the people who are currently on or applying for unemployment compensation benefits. As illegals CURRENTLY can't collect these benefits they don't factor into these figures.
May 25, 2007, 10:29 amM. Hodak:
Are you implying, Jim, that many of those illegals are actually not taking our jerbs because they're unemployed?
May 25, 2007, 1:02 pmEric:
They took our jerbs!!
May 25, 2007, 4:53 pmCraig:
Many of those employed would probably be making more money if illegal immigrants weren't depressing wages.
May 28, 2007, 10:49 pmJim Collins:
"Are you implying, Jim, that many of those illegals are actually not taking our jerbs because they're unemployed?"
No. What I'm saying is that the number of illegals has no bearing on the unemployment figures, because there is no way of determining their influence because they are not counted. In a sense every job filled by an illegal doesn't exist. If a "legal" worker was to take the place of an "illegal" worker the employment figures would show that a "new" job was created.
Think about this. One of the so called benefits of the Immigration bill before Congress is that it continues the supply of "cheap labor". The only reason that illegal aliens are a source of "cheap labor" is because employers can pay them low wages because they are illegal. They don't have a choice, who are they going to complain to? If this bill passes and they become "legal", how long do you think that they are going to put up with the low wages? Once they become "legal" their current employers lose any leverage that they may have had. I'll go one even better here. What happens when the Minimum wage is increased?
May 29, 2007, 8:27 amDr X:
Cheap Labor? Sounds like that benefits us with lower-priced goods and services.
May 30, 2007, 9:10 amla petite chou chou:
Unemployment benefit payout to illegals seems to be more of a problem than some would like to believe. Of course, this is only one source, and it is from the government. But please, to say that no illegal aliens collect unemployment benefits is sadly naive. With the uprising in identity theft and illegal procurement of social security numbers, who could deny the probability that it is happening to some degree? In Oregon for example, and I'm sure it's universally the same, you can't even get a driver's license without providing a SSN. You can't get one of those unless you are legal. But then, how are all these illegal immigrants getting licenses? And don't pretend they aren't. That would just be ridiculous.
http://workforcesecurity.doleta.gov/dmstree/uipl/uipl83/uipl_0683.htm
May 30, 2007, 3:47 pm