Breitbart News - Senator Sessions: Will We Abandon American Workers--Or Save Them From Obama's Amnesty?
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) delivered these remarks on the Senate floor Friday evening.
The U.S. Department of Commerce informs us that “today’s typical 18- to 34-year-old earns about $2,000 less per year (adjusted for inflation) than their counterpart in 1980.” That is a sharp and painful wage decline for young Americans. What has happened in the labor market since 1980?
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau offers this insight: “From 1930 to 1950, the foreign-born population of the United States declined from 14.2 million to 10.3 million…[but] Since 1970, the foreign-born population of the United States has increased rapidly due to large-scale immigration.” Census Bureau statistics report that in 1980, the foreign-born population stood at 14.1 million.
From 1980 through 2013, the immigrant population tripled from 14 million to more than 41 million.
This large increase in the size of the immigrant population is the direct product of policies in Washington.
Legal immigration during the 80’s averaged around 600,000 a year. But since 1990 through today it has averaged about 1 million annually – meaning the annual rate almost doubled. The sustained large-scale flow of legal immigration – overwhelmingly lower-wage and lower-skilled – has placed substantial downward pressure on wages.
We have, right now, a very slack labor market with more jobseekers than jobs.
The White House has itself estimated that are three unemployed persons for each one job opening. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that, in the construction industry, there as 7 unemployed persons for each available job opening.
This large-scale immigration flow, paired with the forces of globalization and automation, has made it ever more difficult American workers to earn a wage that can support a family. ...
Posts
