This blog has published many posts about the U.S. need for immigrant labor.[1] Now a Washington Post article supplies a national statistical analysis of that need.[2]
The article opens with the following general statements:
- “The plentiful supply of immigrants is one of the main reasonsthe U.S. economy has outperformed that of its peers in the affluent world since the eve of the pandemic, accounting for the entire growth of the labor force. Without immigrants, growth would have been slower and inflation higher.”
- “The labor market is extremely tightaround the country. In November, there were 9.5 million job openings but only 6.5 million unemployed workers, according to the latest data from the Labor Department. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is screaming about a national labor shortage.”
But this “shortage is not distributed evenly across states.” Here is a list of the 15 states with the most shortage measured by unemployed workers for every 100 job openings:
| Rank | State | Unemployed Workers for Every 100 Job Openings |
| 1 | South Dakota | 29 |
| 2 | Maryland | 32 |
| 3 | North Dakota | 36 |
| 4 | Vermont | 37 |
| 5 | New Hampshire | 40 |
| 6 | Nebraska | 40 |
| 7 | Alabama | 40 |
| 8 | Maine | 43 |
| 9 | Massachusetts | 43 |
| 10 | South Carolina | 43 |
| 11 | Montana | 47 |
| 12 | Virginia | 47 |
| 13 | Tennessee | 50 |
| 14 | Colorado | 50 |
| 15 | District of Columbia | 50 |
“Generally, it is the states with fewer immigrants that are experiencing the most severe labor shortages.” Many of them also suffer from an aging population and thus a native labor force that is hardly growing. Yet the state with the greatest need for workers, South Dakota, has a governor, Kristi Noem, who “ is doing all she can to keep foreigners out, sending troops from the state National Guard to ‘stand alongside’ troops from Texas at the ‘war zone’ at the southern border.”
It also is instructive to look at the following list of the top U.S. industries with foreign-born workers.
| Industry | Share of Foreign-Born Workers |
| Construction | 30% |
| Transportation & warehousing | 25% |
| Accommodation & food services | 24% |
| Manufacturing | 21% |
| Wholesale trade | 19% |
| Health care & social assistance | 18% |
| Real estate & rental | 17% |
| Information | 17% |
| Retail trade | 16% |
| Finance & insurance | 16% |
| Educational services | 14% |
| Arts, entertainment & recreation | 13% |
“Of course for migrants to help, they must be legally allowed to work, and the U.S. laws and bureaucracy for same is drastically in need of reform, and Republicans in control of the U.S. House of Representatives have been blocking that effort.
=============================
[1] See, e.g., these posts to dwkcommentaries.com:Washington Post Editorial: Improving U.S. Asylum Law and Procedures (Nov. 28. 2023);Migrants from All Over Flocking to U.S. (Nov. 4, 2023);100,000+ Cubans Obtain Humanitarian Parole in U.S. (Oct. 23. 2023); Congressional Dysfunction Hampers U.S. Immigration Policies and Actions (Oct. 7, 2023); U.S. Has Long-Term Labor Crisis (Sept 26, 2023);Overwhelmed U.S. Immigration Court System (Sept. 1, 2023); Increasing Migrant Crossings at U.S. Border Call for Legal Change (Aug. 16, 2023); Wall Street Journal Editorial: U.S. Needs More Immigrants (July 25, 2023);Iowa State Government Encouraging Refugee and Migrant Resettlement (Feb. 3, 2023); Other States Join Iowa in Encouraging Immigration to Combat Aging, Declining Population (Feb. 22, 2023).
[2] Porter & Zhou, Here’s which states could benefit most from migrant labor, Wash. Post (Feb. 14, 2024),