James Freeman: Trump, Immigrants and the Best Job Market Ever At Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, another call for expanded legal migration.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-immigrants-and-the-best-job-market-ever-11550013358?mod=cx_picks&cx_navSource=cx_picks&cx_tag=poptarget&cx_artPos=6#cxrecs_s
Today brought more news of a historically tight job market, as businesses have continued to respond to President Trump’s tax and regulatory reforms by going on a hiring binge. The problem is that they can’t find enough workers. Fortunately, today also brought more comments from President Trump suggesting that he knows how to fix it.
The government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this morning that on the last day of December the number of job openings in the United States hit a record high of 7.3 million.
The Associated Press adds that the total of 7.3 million open positions is “far greater than the number of unemployed, which stood at 6.3 million.” AP reports:
Businesses have shrugged off a variety of potential troubles for the economy in the past two months and kept on hiring. The 35-day partial government shutdown began Dec. 22, and growth in China, Europe and Japan has weakened, threatening U.S. exports. Still, employers added 304,000 jobs in January, the government said earlier this month, the most in nearly a year.
The jump in openings in December suggests hiring will likely remain robust… Tuesday’s data also showed that employers boosted hiring in December, while the number of people who quit remained unchanged at a healthy level of about 3.5 million. Higher quits are typically sign of a dynamic job market, as most people quit to take a new job.
The number of unemployed typically runs far ahead of job openings, but that switched early last year.
During last week’s State of the Union address Mr. Trump strayed from his prepared text to call for legal immigration in “the largest numbers ever.” At today’s cabinet meeting, he once again called for allowing more workers into a U.S. economy that sorely needs them.
“Speaking of jobs, we have to have more people coming into our country,” said Mr. Trump. He added that “we want to have people come into our country, but we want to have them come in through a merit system, and we want to have them come in legally. And that’s going to be happening.”
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