Migrants replenish tight US labor market, report says

The flow of migrants into the United States started to increase as the COVID-19 pandemic was easing and helped to replenish the tight US labor force, figures suggest.

A report in December by the US Census Bureau estimated that between July 2021 and July 2022, more than a million migrants were added to the US population, marking the first net international migration increase since 2016 and the largest single-year increase since 2010.

Between 2010 and 2017, the US added about 800,000 to 1.2 million migrants each year. However, that number dropped dramatically during the pandemic, and 376,000 migrants were added to the population in 2021.

The drop in migration occurred for many reasons. The cap on refugees allowed to enter the US was reduced to 15,000 in 2020, the lowest level in decades. Measures such as a ban on immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries during former president Donald Trump's administration deterred people from trying to come.

As pandemic lockdowns eased, US Citizenship and Immigration Services had a difficult time ramping back up because fewer cases due to the pandemic led to fewer processing fees having paid, which led to a shortage of funds to replenish staff who had left.

The decline of migrants has contributed to the shortage of the labor market, especially in leisure, hospitality and construction sectors where immigrants make up a higher share of employment. It is also in these sectors where wages and job vacancies are higher in the current job market, the Census Bureau said.

Higher pay

An analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City showed that between 2016 and 2021, the mean salary increased an average of 8.7 percent for all jobs, but the increase was between 10 to 12 percent for leisure, hospitality and construction.

The analysis also showed that in 2019, more than 25 percent of direct-care workers such as nursing assistants, home health aides and child care workers were foreign-born.

The analysis suggested that as migration declines, wages rise as the reduced labor supply drives employers to raise wages to attract more workers.

Migrants are now being recruited more quickly at higher pay and under better working conditions than at any time, The Wall Street Journal reported.