If there were no illegals of any race or color?

Question

As of May 2007, The United States has a 4.8% unemployment rate. This translates roughly to 15 million unemployed citizens.
If the Illegals were not here undercuting Federal Minimum Wage requirements would we have a lower unemployment rate?
The jobs had to be done by someone before the illegals came; they were done by minimum wage earning citizens, so don't say our people are too lazy to do them.
Do the Math: depending on whose information you use we have between 12-20 million illegals, and about 15 million unemployed citizens.
It would make sense to me that if they leave, our unemployment numbers will go down drasticaly.

jcpfaff, interesting name. Alma Center, WI?
You must have been gone for a while, we here in WI have small towns being overrun one at a time and these are not minimum wage jobs either, these are factories, $9-16 per hour, for here that is good wages.
Nothing can fix our unemployment rates completely, but I belive they would be drasticaly lower.

Mary B, I used minimum wages as part of the example, we are limited to 1000 words after all.
I understand what you are saying about the highly skilled or trained people, but they do have the trainning and skills to find work, if they are too proud to accept wages while searching for their field, then they don't need to eat.
My concern is with the uneducated and untrained, they need the jobs that the uneducated and unskilled illegals take.
And no I am not saying ALL illegals are uneducated. I am addressing the jobs that these two people are competing for, our citizens shouldn't have to compete with illegals to eat.
Trimming Christmas trees was a summer job for the kids in this area when I was growing up, now the illegals do it, our kids could do it also, they just need to accept almost the same wages paid in 1984. Does that seem fair to you?

Answer 1

Yes, the unemployed could fill those jobs. The employers would not be happy for they would have to pay at least minimum wage, but that is their problem. They should not have hired illegals in the first place.
The extra benefit would be a great reduction on our education and health care systems as well. No illegals is a win situation for the US lower and middle classes.

Answer 2

I do not think getting rid of illegals will have much impact on the unemployment rate. While I can see how this would make sense, we need to remember that

1) not all citizens can work (disabilities)
2) not all citizens want to work (some people are just lazy, some of my cousins that are have been on welfare all of their adult lives)
3) not all citizens want the type of jobs that illegals take.
(I like my engineering job, and I don't want to go work construction, any agriculture job, or work in a factory, instead of what I am doing now.)

I would also respectfully disagree that someone else was doing these doing these jobs before the illegals (The Chinese built our railroads and slaves pick our crops).

I agree that it all makes sense on paper, but I don't think everything can be simplified to a simple math. You must always try to account for the human element.

I do agree that the illegal immigration issue needs to be address and solved, but I also think that we (Americans) and can not and will not pick up the all slack. We (Americans) already work more than our European "friends".

Answer 3

Actually, macro economically speaking, normal, healthy unemployment levels are 3% to 6%. So actually, if your 4.8% is accurate, the U.S. is right where it should be.
Unemployment can be due to labor mobility (going from one workplace to another), or friction unemployment (taking time to school for a better position). When the same group of people remain unemployed for a long time, then you have structural unemployment. This is dangerous as it often produces feelings of loss of self worth and lack of self confidence, which in turn renders those same people virtually unhirable.
The very nature of the free market encourages unemployment of unskilled and semi-skilled workers. Factories move overseas for cheaper labor, then import their goods at lower prices.
I don't see how illegal immigration can really make that huge a difference in the employment levels. You just don't have illegal CEOs and PhDs taking those positions that are "rightfully" "OURS".

Answer 4

Mary B is right, although I can't help agreeing with your statement too... I think that the unemployment rate would go down overall if the illegals were gone. There are a small percentage that are just inbetween jobs, or who are technically too overqualified to get certain jobs...

Answer 5

I used to live in Wisconsin but now I live in Arizona so if we got rid of all the Illegals it might solve part of the unemployment in AZ, CA, but I doubt it would filter all the way up to WI. Unemployment is nationally spread were immigration is more localized.

Answer 6

Your "question" assumes that all those who are unemployed will work for minimum wage. This is certainly not the case. I seriously doubt a highly skilled worker who is laid off from his/her job is going to go pick beans for minimum wage. please keep in mind that many on the unemployment roles are there only as they transition to another non-minimum wage job.

Answer 7

Makes perfect sense to me...would fix a lot of problems in this country, not only unemployment rates, but crime rates would be lower, less gangs, etc...

Answer 8

Sure save a lot of money$$ The social service alone.

Answer 9

You are so right there is NO job an american won't do.
Deport the Illegals and you can't help but create jobs.

Answer 10

they are probably counted in those numbers... strange, eh?