The United States may have a near-record high 10.4 million job openings, but Canada has already returned the size of its workforce to pre-pandemic levels.
Their secret?
High levels of immigration.
While the U.S. continues to let in fewer immigrants than it did before President Donald Trump entered the White House, Canada has increased immigration by 50% over the previous five years.
But there is one small drawback to the Canadian high-immigration solution: low wages. Bloomberg reports:
<bsp-quote data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1638115641776,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017a-8cb2-d416-ad7a-beb7278f0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1638115641776,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017a-8cb2-d416-ad7a-beb7278f0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"quote":"Companies have been filling job postings at a breakneck clip in recent months… But workers, with fewer labor shortages acting as leverage, are scoring tiny wage increases — currently running at 2% on average — that leave them poorer after inflation of almost 5% is factored in.
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“Much of that surge seems to be attributable to recent newcomers picking up jobs in sectors with low pay,” says Armine Yalnizyan, a research fellow at the Atkinson Foundation. “So are Canadian workers really better off?”","_id":"0000017d-674c-d87c-af7f-ffcefe630000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b92f10002"}”>Companies have been filling job postings at a breakneck clip in recent months… But workers, with fewer labor shortages acting as leverage, are scoring tiny wage increases — currently running at 2% on average — that leave them poorer after<a label=” inflation of almost 5%” class=”rte2-style-brightspot-core-link-LinkRichTextElement” href=”https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-17/canada-inflation-accelerates-to-4-7-highest-since-2003″> </a><u><a label=” inflation of almost 5%” class=”rte2-style-brightspot-core-link-LinkRichTextElement” href=”https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-17/canada-inflation-accelerates-to-4-7-highest-since-2003″>inflation of almost 5%</a></u> is factored in.
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“Much of that surge seems to be attributable to recent newcomers picking up jobs in sectors with low pay,” says Armine Yalnizyan, a research fellow at the Atkinson Foundation. “So are Canadian workers really better off?”Are Canadian workers better off with higher immigration and lower wages?
The American family sure isn’t. Low wages mean fewer marriages, more divorce, and more children raised in single-parent households.
The U.S economy doesn’t need higher immigration to fill record high job openings. What U.S. the economy needs — what the family needs — is higher wages to bring more men out of their basements and into the labor force.
