excalibur
Diamond Member
- Mar 19, 2015
- 28,468
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What really matters, not what some out-of-the-loop McCain-ite "economist" says.
Delivering for Americans.
www.breitbart.com
Delivering for Americans.
The early economic returns on President Trump’s immigration enforcement are unambiguous: American workers are winning. After decades of being told that mass immigration was an economic necessity, the data from Trump’s first eight months in office tell a different story—one where reducing foreign worker competition translates directly into higher wages and improved living standards for native-born Americans.
The numbers are stark and revealing. The foreign-born workforce has contracted by nearly one million workers since January, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday. This represents a complete reversal of the 2024 trend, when foreign-born workers provided essentially all U.S. job growth, adding over 2 million positions to their ranks.
What happened when that foreign worker flood was turned off? Exactly what basic economic theory predicts: wages rose, and rose meaningfully.
The Labor Economics of Immigration Enforcement
Average hourly earnings have jumped 1.8 percent from January to August, an annualized growth rate of 3.1 percent. But the real story lies with production and non-supervisory workers—the 80 percent of the workforce most likely to compete directly with foreign-born labor. Their wages have risen 2.0 percent over seven months, annualizing to 3.4 percent growth.
These aren’t just nominal gains being eaten away by inflation. With consumer prices rising only 1.2 percent over the same period, American workers have seen genuine purchasing power increases. Production workers alone have gained nearly 0.8 percentage points in real wage growth—meaning their paychecks buy more goods and services than they did at the start of the year.
The August employment report underscores this trend. Despite weaker than expected jobs growth, production workers saw monthly wage growth of 0.4 percent, which annualizes to a robust 4.7 percent. This acceleration coincides precisely with the tightening labor market created by immigration enforcement.
This is not mysterious. It’s just Econ 101. Reduce the supply of workers, and the price of labor (wages) is likely to rise. For decades, immigration advocates have obscured this basic relationship with complex theories about complementary skills and job creation. That’s even more true when employers are forced to hire natives and permanent residents who cannot be partially compensated with U.S. residency because they already have the right to live here. The Trump administration’s natural experiment in immigration restriction has cut through the academic fog with real-world results.
Productivity Gains Trump Immigration Dependency
Critics warned that reducing foreign worker flows would crater economic growth. Instead, American businesses are responding exactly as economic theory suggests: by becoming more productive rather than simply hiring more bodies.
Labor productivity surged 3.3 percent in the second quarter, suggesting that companies faced with tighter labor markets are investing in efficiency improvements, technology, and higher-skilled processes. Rather than relying on an endless supply of low-wage foreign workers, businesses are being forced to compete for American workers—and that competition drives both wages and productivity higher.
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Breitbart Business Digest: Trump's Immigration Enforcement Delivers Real Wage Gains for American Workers
Trump's immigration enforcement has delivered something rare in American politics: a policy that does exactly what its supporters promised.
www.breitbart.com
