On June 4, 2021, the US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that 559,000 more people were working in the USA during May. The BLS also reported that the unemployment rate in the US dropped to 5.8 percent, which is the lowest since the start of the global pandemic. Economists generally consider 5.0 percent unemployment to be “full employment”. Speaking about the new US jobs report, President Joseph Biden declared, “That means we have now created over 2 million jobs in total since I took office, more jobs than have ever been created in the first four months of any presidency in modern history, triple the rate of my predecessor, eight times the rate of President Reagan.” President Biden also said, “No other major economy is gaining jobs as quickly as ours” and gave credit to people living in the USA wearing masks and getting vaccinated, which has allowed more American businesses to open up and hire workers to meet consumer demand. As the economy continues its rapid recovery, employers are facing a shortage of workers to fill a range of jobs in the USA. This current labor shortage is expected to increase as the world’s largest economy expands, creating new jobs in America, and as more “baby boomer” workers retire this decade. To read more, click here!

A 10-year-old former refugee from Nigeria has become a national chess master after moving to America. In 2017, young Tani and his family were able to relocate to the USA as refugees and they settled in New York City where the boy joined the chess program at his school. He started defeating other young chess players all across New York and went on to win the chess championship for New York state, which gained him international acclaim. Two years later, Tani has become a national chess master for the United States after winning over 2200 victories over his opponents. His proud father, Adewumi, says his son hopes to become the world’s youngest chess grand master. This US immigration success story doesn’t stop here. Adewumi and his family struggled with finding stable housing after moving to the US as refugees and they were temporarily in a New York homeless shelter. An American journalist who is known worldwide wrote an article about young Tani and before long, this Nigerian immigrant family received $254,000 in donations to their GoFundMe account. Today, they are living in a nice home in Port Jefferson , New York. Not only that, Adewumi and his family have established a foundation to raise money to help other children who are in similar situations. A book about Tani has also been published and a movie about his inspiring US immigration experience could be made in the near future. Tani’s family hopes that his story will inspire refugees around the globe to “keep hope alive.” To read more, click here!

The United States is experiencing a major labor shortage and this is forcing employers to increase wages at the fastest rate in 25 years in order to fill US job vacancies. According to the US Department of Labor’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report released in early May 2021, there are more than 8 million jobs in the USA available to job-seekers. This is the most US job vacancies since December 2000. Employers in various business sectors are trying to attract new workers by significantly increasing wages. For example, one of the world’s largest banks raised its minimum hourly wage from $20 per hour to $25 per hour and an international sporting goods store is increasing the hourly wage paid to its employees from $10 per hour to $15 per hour. One of the largest fast-food restaurants in the world has also announced that its 36,500 employees who are working in the USA will get a 10% pay raise. A chief economist at Moody’s Analytics said that US wage growth during the first three months of 2021 is the highest since the 1990s. The Credit Suisse chief equity strategist declared that employers are increasing pay “everywhere” – in finance, manufacturing, retail and other business sectors. To read more, click here!

Data from the 2020 Census suggests that US immigration needs to increase substantially in order to sustain economic growth in the United States by compensating for a declining birth rate and an aging workforce. According to the information gathered for the US Census, the population of the United States grew by only 7.4% from 2010 to 2020; a slow rate of growth not seen since the 1930s. This is something that American leaders should be concerned about, because there is a consensus among economists that economic growth in prosperous countries is driven by an increasing population. This situation is compounded by the declining birth rate in the US and the country’s aging workforce. The solution is to increase the number of babies being born in the United States or significantly increase US immigration. Encouraging people to have more children might make a small impact, but the most effective way to boost the population and expand the workforce is by increasing US immigration levels. The average age of individuals who immigrate to the United States is 31, which is a prime working age. Furthermore, immigrants start more businesses and create more jobs in the USA than people who are born in the United States. Some experts have recommended raising net immigration to the United States by a minimum of 37% or by an additional 370,000 Green Card holders per year in order to replace retiring workers and fill new jobs in the USA. To read more, click here!

The US economy is off to a good start in 2021, with GDP growing at an annualized rate of 6.4% during the first three months of the year. With a majority of American consumers feeling confident about economic conditions in the United States and starting to spend the $4.1 trillion they saved during the pandemic lockdowns, the US economy is expected to enjoy its best year of growth since 1951, according to some analysts. The US economy is forecast to grow at an incredible annualized rate of 13% during the second quarter of 2021 (April, May and June) and have an overall GDP growth rate of around 7.5% for the year. Americans were purchasing cars and other goods in the first three months of the year, but strong spending on services is expected to sustain healthy economic growth during 2021 and into 2022 as more people dine in restaurants and travel. The economic expansion during the first three months of 2021 was boosted by the $600 and $1400 stimulus checks that most Americans received from the US Government. Consumers took that extra money and bought cars, appliances, furniture and other goods. To read more, click here!

On April 2, 2021, the US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that 917,000 new jobs in the USA were added to the economy during March 2021, dropping the country’s unemployment rate down to 6 percent. The BLS also increased its US jobs estimates for the previous two months, reporting that 233,000 people found work in America during January and 468,000 US jobs were filled in February. The hospitality and leisure sector created 280,000 jobs in the USA during March; restaurants and bars hired 176,000 employees; and the construction industry added 110,000 workers. Approximately three million people living in the US are being vaccinated each day and this is allowing more sectors of the economy to re-open, making it necessary for employers to hire thousands of workers to meet the growing demand. The world’s largest economy is expected to get a big boost this year from the $1.9 trillion stimulus package recently passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden. The massive infrastructure program which President Biden has separately proposed to Congress will also produce thousands of new jobs in America. To read more, click here!

In March 2021, Goldman Sachs predicted that there will be strong hiring in the United States during 2021 and that the unemployment rate in the US is likely to drop from the current 6.2% to just 4.1% or even lower by the end of the year. Both Goldman Sachs and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also expect that US employment will return to pre-pandemic levels before 2022 comes to an end. Some of the reasons given for this optimistic US employment forecast include the ongoing reopening of the US economy, increased savings accumulated by Americans during the lockdowns, a strong desire by consumers to spend, along with the enormous fiscal stimulus recently passed by Congress. According to the Conference Board’s Labor Markets Institute, the present trend indicates that the US unemployment rate will fall “well below” 5% by the close of this year. To read more, click here!

President Joe Biden’s appointments of women to top economic policy positions in the US government has broken barriers and further demonstrated the inclusiveness promoted by the new administration. History was already made when the former US Senator from California, Kamala Harris, became the first women, first Black and first Asian Vice-President of the United States. Vice-President Harris is also the daughter of immigrants, her mother immigrating to the US from India and her father from Jamaica. President Biden’s Cabinet is also four times more diverse than former President Trump’s Cabinet. In order to help the world’s largest economy expand faster and create more jobs in America, President Biden appointed several accomplished women to senior economic policy positions in the US government. This is yet another indicator of President Biden’s support for inclusiveness in America, since women have not been represented in economics as mush as men. For example, Janet Yellen is the first women in 232 years to become Secretary of the Treasury. The White House Council of Economic Advisers is being led by Cecilia Rouse, who is the first Black leader of The Council in the 75 years it has existed. The new Chief Economist at the US Department of Labor is Janelle Jones, the first Black women to hold this high position. Joelle Gamble is the Special Assistant to The President for Economic Policy. These and other highly qualified women who are now formulating US economic policy are known for seeking an economy that benefits more Americans, including women, Blacks, Hispanics and the working class generally. They will be helping to decide how the US government spends trillions of dollars that have been approved as part of the America Rescue Plan. To read more, click here!

There are over one million advertisements posted for information technology jobs in the USA, but not enough workers to fill them all. Despite the economic disruptions cause by Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns, the unemployment rate for computer professionals in the United States was a very low 2.3% as of February 2021, which is actually lower than than in January 2020 (3.0 percent) before the start of the pandemic. During the time period of February 8, 2021, to March 7, 2021, there were 378,197 US job postings for software developers or software quality assurance analysts and testers; 101,737 US job vacancies for computer systems analysts; 101,153 advertisements for network and computer system administrators; 67,995 information security analysts needed; job openings for 61,621 computer and information systems managers; 37,058 US job ads for electrical engineers; 26,241 roles available for computer programmers; and 21,767 computer and information research scientist jobs in the USA advertised; plus thousands of other US job opportunities available in the IT sector. Unfortunately, there are not enough H-1B temporary US work visas issued each year to bring in a sufficient number of skilled foreign workers to help fill all of these US job openings in various computer occupations. Another way for skilled foreign workers and their families to work in the USA legally is to be granted a US Permanent Resident Green Card through the Green Card Lottery Program. To read more, click here!

New research from the National Immigration Forum supports President Biden’s efforts to increase US immigration levels. Some of the reasons given for boosting US immigration levels include a rapidly-aging American population; growing numbers of “baby boomer” generation workers retiring from the labor force; rising life expectancy; falling fertility rates; and shortages of workers for US jobs in information technology, healthcare, agriculture and other industries. According to the report, “Immigrants are well-positioned to fill critical shortages, whether in the labor market or the country’s demographic composition.” Recent research from the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) also supports raising US immigration levels, because of the positive impact immigrants have on the economy and the creation of new jobs in America. An economics professor in Florida, who was previously an economist at the Federal Reserve in Atlanta, has stated that US immigration is strongly associated with growing employment in the United States in metro and rural counties. Immigrants are especially beneficial to rural areas of the US where the population has been declining as more residents move to the cities. Immigrants can help rural populations to grow or stabilize and they fill jobs that allow local businesses to expand. To read more, click here!