Jon Purizhansky ( Joblio.co ) says that for months now, consumers in the US have been experiencing an uptick in the prices of groceries and other commodities across the country. In May, the US government reported that inflation had jumped to a record 8.6% — the highest it has been since 1981, with the United States Department of Labor ascribing the rise in CPI to price increases for fuel, food, and housing.
Following the government’s inflation report, stock prices fell terribly as investors speculated on the Federal Reserve’s next move, which might involve hiking interest rates more sharply than expected. Already, the US Central Bank had begun tightening monetary policy in March and is expected to announce another half-point increase in its benchmark rate next week.
While the entire country struggles to grapple with the crippling effects of inflation on the economy — blaming the Russian-Ukraine conflict for the disruptions and market upsets that have no apparent end in sight, Joblio believes that the solution to the problem lies in fixing the outdated immigration laws that currently make it difficult for qualified migrants to join the US labor force.
According to the leading global recruitment company, the world is currently in a tricky situation where the only way forward is for countries to rely on each other’s strengths to even out their weaknesses. Developed countries are mostly filled with aged citizens who spent their youth building generational wealth and have no interest in working, whereas underdeveloped countries are struggling to keep their population under control — mostly filled with young vibrant individuals without jobs.
The economics around the problem is quite simple: lack of labor affects production volume, which in turn reduces supply, causing scarcity and driving up prices. Although countries such as Canada and other European nations have understood that labor shortages will kill their economy and have adjusted their immigration policies to fast-track the admission of qualified migrants into their labor force, the US continues to operate its archaic immigration laws that have turned the country’s borders into inverted funnels.
The situation is so absurd that while most advanced nations simply require a signed contract with a localized employer to grant you a work Visa, recent government data projects that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will reject up to 82% of the H-1B registrations for high-skilled foreign nationals submitted in the most recent H-1B lottery.
Originally Posted : https://jonpurizhansky.wordpress.com/2022/07/11/fixing-immigration-laws-can-stabilise-inflation/