Here’s which states could benefit most from migrant labor

Opinion

Follow this authorEduardo Porter's opinions

South Dakota’s labor market has been tight as a drum for over two years now, home to just 0.3 unemployed workers for every job opening in November — the lowest in a decade and way below the (pretty tight) national average of 0.7.

It’s been this tight in Maryland since June of last year as well. And also in North Dakota. New York’s job market, by contrast, has considerably more slack, with 0.9 unemployed workers per job opening. Only Nevada, New Jersey and California have more unemployed workers available to fill new positions.

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Generally, it is the states with fewer immigrants that are experiencing the most severe labor shortages.

South Dakota is also suffering from an aging population. Its labor force is hardly growing. Just under 67 percent of the population is in the workforce, 2 percentage points less than a decade ago.

People born outside of the country made up less than 3.8 percent of the state’s population in 2022. It ended 2022 with 33,000 job openings. Yet it received barely 4,084 temporary foreign workers and their families in that fiscal year. It could do with a bunch more.

Nevertheless, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is doing all she can to keep foreigners out, sending troops from the state National Guard to “stand alongside” troops from Texas at the “war zone” at the southern border.

There are other options. South Dakota may be small and hostile. But bigger states are in similar quandaries. There are two job openings for every unemployed person in Virginia. The state had 330,000 job openings at the end of 2022, but it received only 36,380 people among foreign workers and their families.

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Of course, for migrants to help, they must be allowed to work. That is not always straightforward. Migrants applying for asylum must wait at least six months to get work........

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