Topic Category: Labor

The labor shortage in the U.S. is an urgent national concern. As of July 2022, USCC counted 11 million job openings but only 6 million unemployed workers, and many companies are struggling to maintain their level of productivity. While moving forward is a challenge, fortunately navigating the labor shortage is possible if companies assess the problems ahead. Let’s take a closer look below.

There has never been a better time to show your employees that you appreciate them. In our previous article, 9 Critical Strategies to Attract and Retain New Workers, we mentioned that the U.S. economy has been improving, which has opened up a whole new set of problems such as labor shortages and skill deficits in the country. What can you do to keep your current workforce and prevent them from jumping ship?

I'm a nationally syndicated columnist, author of several books and a speaker on global business, labor, and economic trends. I'm also a beneficiary, not a victim, of dyslexia, a learning disability characterized by reading, writing and decoding difficulties. Why do I say beneficiary? Read on.

If you can't find workers, you're not alone. At each keynote speech I give, I ask the audience to raise their hands if it's difficult to hire new employees. Just about everyone raises their hand. I then ask if they have trouble retaining them. Again, nearly everyone raises their hand.

The unveiling of the American Jobs Plan has sparked conversation about what the Biden administration can do for U.S. workers. This is a step in the right direction. However, because this legislation is more fundamentally about infrastructure and new jobs, the question of what the government can do for current low-income workers in particular is still an open one.

The presidential election polls were significantly off in 2020 with President Trump garnering many more votes than pollsters anticipated. Data analyst David Shor argued that the polls were wrong because Democratic voters became more politically engaged than Republicans during the lockdowns and answered more surveys. Rather than a shy Trump supporter phenomenon, there was a loquacious Biden supporter phenomenon. This created a pre‐election blue mirage whereby Democratic support appeared to be much greater than it really was.

The Trump Administration has just issued a proclamation that will restrict the issuance of many temporary economic migrant work visas. The proclamation will go into effect on June 24 at 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time. The visas affected are the H-1B visa for skilled temporary migrant workers, the H-2B visa for temporary lower‐skilled non‐agricultural employment, most J visas, and L visas for intracompany transfers.

How illegal immigrants affect crime is one of the most contentious subareas of debate in the entire immigration issue. Cato scholars have produced much original research on this topic, finding that illegal and legal immigrants both have lower incarceration rates than native-born Americans and lower criminal conviction rates in the state of Texas, the only state where data are available.

I often hear people talk about their difficulties in finding a meaningful job or keeping up with increasing healthcare, housing and education costs. These concerns, along with rising income inequality and a shrinking middle class, are provoking anger. For many, trade and immigration have become convenient villains. But that narrative is wrong. Let me tell you why.