Friday, December 14, 2007

Jobs Americans Won´t Do!

Are there Jobs Americans Won´t Do? If you listen to the employers in areas where strict restrictionist Immigration laws have been imposed, they are telling us they cannot find employees to do these jobs.


The Role of 7.2 Million Undocumented Workers

Mitt Romney Fired His Landscapers, but What About Your Waiter, Maid and Contractor?

By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMESDec. 11, 2007
The dirt under Mike Mendenko's nails reveals more than his 52 years at Village Nurseries in Hightstown, N.J., where he has worked since he was a teenager. As owner of a seven-acre tree farm and landscaping company, he's facing the toughest job of his life — finding workers. And if Mendenko challenged the fragile documentation of the workers he's got, he might have no business at all.
Immigration advocates say he is not alone. If all small-business owners did the same, whole industries — landscaping, restaurants and construction — might collapse. For Mendenko, it's hard to compete against big-box retailers, and, it's even harder to find labor, especially as the debate over the role of immigrants has escalated in the presidential nomination campaign.
"Very few American folks are willing to do this kind of work anymore," said Mendenko, whose son left the nursery to study white-collar science at Cornell University. "We're desperate for the help." Mendenko has stopped trying to find teenagers to do the backbreaking physical work. These days, he says he relies on a legal — "if you believe what people tell you" — immigrant work force.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am for compassionate deportation.


Let me try to give my two cents.

The availability of labor creates the demand for labor

in other words, if a billion people showed up in America, the wages of the unskilled would drop to $1 a day.

All billion of them would be hired

that doesn't mean that our economy can't do without the billion people

What i can say is that if all 12 million undocumented leave, wages will rise up and many jobs will be done by robots instead of people.

Overall, wages will be much higher

businesses that rely on low wage labor and that won't use robots will close

Japan has almost no unskilled immigration and they do just fine - plenty of robots in restaurants in Japan

and on farms in japan

Anonymous said...

dee, why do you continue to bring the same old things up over and over? We have already discussed this in depth many times. Agricultural workers only make up 2% of our population. There aren't many jobs that most Americans won't do for a fair wage. We already admitted that most Americans will not work in the fields for a living. We can have a temporary workers program for that or we can automate more. Nothing new in this topic.

Anonymous said...

H-2A/B Visas, they are there to be used, the problem is that the employers do not want to pay the additional requirement's for the visas. If they did pay the requirements, then the just as well pay a citizen the same for which they would have no labor shortage.

U.S. Department of Labor
What is the total oost of using the visa program?? Employees wage (EWA CA $9.20 per hour) + Housing + 3 Meals per day + Transportation + Work Comp Ins + All Tools + Cert Fee ($100 + $10 per cert) = $17 - $20 per hour; employer cost per employee.

The plans are in place, its just a lack of use by the employers as it cuts into to much of their profits.
Illegals only cost $8 - $10 per hour and NO Additional costs.

My employees work for $10 per hour doing tree care (starting pay) and go up to $14 per hour based on experience, i.e. dragging brush, and my climbers make $15 per hour (starting pay) and go up to $19 per hour based on experience, and I have no problem hiring American Citizens any time of the year. We offer health care incentives if they choose.

Anonymous said...

N.J. rate is $9.29 per hour mandated pay by the government + all the above mentioned costs in my previous post. So on average $17 - $20 per hour cost to an employer is nominal and realistic. So why not offer a Citizen $12 - $15 per hour for the same job?? The employer would still be saving $$$ and having a profit.

Anonymous said...

Read some articles about the robots in japan -

stores, restaurants, hotels, farms, all over japan they have more machines doing what people here do.

by using more machines, the US could do without the undocumented. instead of paying starvation level wages to undocumented we could be paying middle class wages to technicians and engineers that handle the robots and machines

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