Tags
apprenticeships, Immigration, labor shortages, productivity, The Wall Street Journal, training, wages, Will Feuer, {What's Left of) Our Economy
Could a learning curve be developing in American business about U.S. labor market issues? One hopeful sign appeared today in a Wall Street Journal report on current shortages of workers needed to build new federally funded fast internet systems for under-served rural American communities.
Specifically, the article by Will Feuer wasn’t dominated by thinly disguised pleas for more immigration to fill the gap. In fact, no one he interviewed – even the heads of the companies trying to put these networks in place – called for opening U.S. borders wider to boost the national pool of “fiber splicers.”
Instead – and somewhat contrary to the piece’s somewhat alarmist headline – many of the firms engaged in this endeavor are responding the way that businesses have dealt with scarce labor throughout American history – by becoming more productive. And others are trying to expand supply of possible hires domestically in various ways.
Some are making products that are simpler to work with, and therefore require fewer workers to complete a given assignment. Others are changing their business models – e.g., moving more of their installation, maintenance, and repair work on fixed broadband networks in-house, or retraining employees involved in lower-demand projects to handle the surge of new orders that will stream in as tens of billions of government dollars start getting spent to build the new systems.
Still others are conducting training programs for their own workers and sponsoring apprenticeships for potential workers – including high school students – already residing in the United States. Others are raising pay – another way to attract and retain more employees, and a screamingly obvious one, too. (In fact, one shortcoming of the report is the lack of any information on current wages in the industry and how they’ve changed over time.) And surely some are trying some or all of the above.
The broader implications, moreover, should be crystal clear. The nation can either follow a labor force policy of balancing supply and demand in ways historically proven to raise living standards sustainably, and ensure that greater technolotical and managerial efficiencies maximize benefits for both busines and the existing domestic workforce. Or it can pursue immigration-centric approaches whenever companies or industries claim labor shortages, and achieve race-to-the-bottom-type results.