The national unemployment rate is 8.9 percent and even higher in places like Cambridge, Md. So you might find it strange to see NBC advocating an expansion of legal migrant labor when so many Americans are struggling.
Nonetheless, former "NBC Nightly News" anchor Tom Brokaw did just that in the first part of a new series called "American Character." The former anchor will travel U.S. Highway 50 from coast to coast to report on people struggling in this economy. On "Nightly News" May 27, Brokaw visited a crab picking house in Cambridge, Md. that's suffering from a shortage of workers.
"Jack Brooks runs J.M. Clayton's, one of the oldest crab processors in the area," Brokaw said. "He's got all the crabs he can handle. What he doesn't have, even in this brutal economy, is enough workers to pick them."
According to Brokaw, the county of Brooks' business is suffering from an 11.5 percent unemployment rate. But Brooks claimed he's unable to get people to work for him under the current conditions:
BROKAW: Jack, you've got 11-and-a-half percent unemployment in the county here. I would think you'd have people lined up out the door willing to help you pick.
BROOKS: I would think so, too.
BROKAW: Why not?
BROOKS: That's a good question. I don't know if it's the seasonality of the business. Have a look, it's tough work. We just had a job fair. We had seven companies participating in the job fair and we got eight applicants, eight applicants.
According to a couple of current employees, Brooks' troubles were a symptom of the current culture - that "young people" aren't into work. But Brokaw's segment argued the only solution was relaxing immigrant worker visa rules rather than making it more lucrative for employees to work for him in some way. No other view was expressed in the segment.
"With so few Americans willing to do this hard work, Brooks depends on seasonal workers, mostly from Mexico here legally under a visa program called H2V," Brokaw said. "The government has capped that program at 66,000. That's not nearly enough workers for the thousands of seasonal businesses and American workers who rely on them."
Brokaw also interviewed Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., who has a track record of supporting relaxation of immigration laws across the board. According to Mikulski, she is championing this cause for businesses like Brooks' crab picking house and others like it.
"I am fighting for a policy that says if you come into America and work in a seasonal industry and go back home, you can come back in again, work for the same employer without touching an immigration cap," Mikulski said. "[T]he sensible center is having a comprehensive immigration policy, actually set caps on the number of people who come in, but reward the people who come in and return home by giving them an exemption from the cap and also reward the employer who goes by the rules."
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Gee-
May 28, 2009 - 12:32 ET by misterbillIt took me a while to enter this, I was crying so hard for Jack and his business.
HOWEVER-- there is some truth to what the Senator said and the older lady shelling the crabs. What does Jack pay?? How come, just a few years ago the high school and college kids took those jobs?? Not a particularly good journalism job by someone who is supposed to be one of the premier newsmen that ever--?? When do the jobs start?? Do they overlap and conflict with the school year??? Is it really that American kids won't do the jobs?? That theory seems to fold whenever it is put to the test.
In Massachusetts when the state clamped down on illegal employment on Cape Cod, as I read, the kids came back and the Cape survived the loss of those "hard workers" for the summer. How in the world did the American economy survive all those years without these foreign workers??? Maybe the dollar signs of increased profits by employing 21st century slave labor didn't shine so brightly in the employers' eyes.
The flaw in the Senator's thinking is that as soon as there is exemption from the cap, the folks are not going to go home. That is self-evident by just looking around you anywhere in the United States. The workers are going to do whatever they can to become permanent, even illegally. Wouldn't you?? Her solution is to satisfy the employers of Maryland and does not begin to consider the permanent harm that may be wrought on the country as a a whole. Also why should I , or anyone "reward" some one for obeying the law??? Maybe her insight as a woman provides her with better solutions than an old white male like me.
Also the exemption from the cap could (and IMHO, would) provide sanctioned approval for permanent competition in the job market by low paid immigrants.
Coincidence? Olbermann has all the crabs he can handle, too
May 28, 2009 - 13:29 ET by SickofLibsA "job fair" for crab pickers, and only 8 showed up???
TIP: next time, don't schedule it on the same day as the Cesspool Cleaners Job Fair.
it's just econ 101
May 28, 2009 - 16:11 ET by wizardjr"unable to get people to work for him under the current conditions"
As soon as this guy pays a high enough hourly rate he'll have all the local labor he wants. Duh!
"With so few Americans willing to do this hard work..."
Pure BS. Wages are the market tool to get labor to your site. It really is that simple. Slave wages only satisfy illegals, for whom it is a fortune compared to starving to death in their own crap-hole countries. That chicken plucking plant a couple months back proves it. As soon as ICE hauled away a hundred+ illegals, the next day locals were lined up around the block to apply for the jobs. QED.
Unemployment
May 28, 2009 - 16:41 ET by NorthCoasterWhat sense does it make to import workers when there is high unemployment? During previous years when workers on the North Coast of Ohio were fully employed, Cedar Point had to hire workers from overseas. This year, many mature workers from the area are filling those jobs. Locals will fill jobs as they feel the need to work. Many people are happy to collect unemployment, especially in the Summer, or if they expect to be called back to work. Once unemployment runs out with no recall, people will need to take a job just to pay expenses. Unfortunately the available jobs often pay much less than what they were getting before. this becomes an incentive for owners to raise wages to keep good workers, or for underemployed workers to find better paying work.
Damn, North Dakota has a 4%
May 28, 2009 - 18:24 ET by BDDamn, North Dakota has a 4% unemployment rate. Things are out of control there....Ha!
Brokaw is a leftist...what
May 28, 2009 - 18:41 ET by bigtimerBrokaw is a leftist...what other kind of a report should we expect.
Plastic, mommy and daddy supporting kids for half their lives,never giving them real chores or responsibilities, pride in getting a job early on, pride in hard work, pride in a pay-check, pride in being self-supporting, plus congress extending unemployment, along with govt. varying programs are all part of the problems...and illegal immigration is a huge problem...of course the regulations that congress has imposed on businesses of all kinds is horrendous...and by the way, unfortunately a heck of a lot of young adults are plain lazy or think they are above some jobs.
Yep...the Govt. will take care of all...cradle to grave...and it seems we will never get rid of congress-critters like Mikulski and her ilk.
Well, that's my rant of the day.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
What could have been said next: Change one can believe in!
May 28, 2009 - 19:22 ET by Gary HallWhat could have been said next: