Immigration could ease industry labor woes

Two things sometimes get lost in the discussion about how to improve workforce development in Pennsylvania, according to Kevin Schreiber, president and CEO of the York County Economic Alliance.

Simple math and immigration.

“We have a labor shortage in America right now,” Schreiber said. It’s human capital, it’s a numbers thing.

And, he said, “I think a solution to our workforce challenges rests in immigration.”

The Economic Alliance hosted more than 50 educational and industrial representatives on Friday in York to hear State Auditor General Eugene DePasquale talk about ways to improve the workforce development system in Pennsylvania.

Most of the discussion centered on findings from a performance audit review of the Pennsylvania Workforce Development Board released by DePasquale in February, attendees said.

Media was invited to the event but were not permitted entry for the presentation.

The performance audit, a highly-detailed document based on surveys and interviews with industry executives and others, recommended the state and its workforce development partners put more focus on basic people skills, emphasize the earning potential and job security in manufacturing and increase efforts into training older workers.

It’s an important discussion in York where, Schreiber said, 17% of county’s workforce is in manufacturing.

“That’s nearly twice the state and national average,” he said. “We’re going to suffer the same retirement wave of people exiting the workforce in the next decade that everyone else will, and ours will be more predominantly in manufacturing. We know young people that will be entering the workforce, generally speaking, are not necessarily looking for those trades. So what are we doing now to position ourselves to backfill those positions?”

The answer lies partly in immigration policy, he believes.

There’s much discussion among employers about H-1B visas, particularly in the tech industry, Schreiber said. That program allows companies in the U.S. to temporarily employ foreign workers in certain occupations.

Some are concerned that denials of H-1B visas has risen steadily from 13,073 denials of first-time applications in 2015 to 69,543 this year. The approval rate fell from about 96% in 2015 to 85% this year.

These employees are essential at many companies, according to Schreiber.

“More broadly, a constant level of uncertainty pertaining to immigration injects a level of instability for current or potentially future workers for their companies,” Schreiber said.

He pointed out that Immigration needs to be part of the discussion to solve workforce challenges in the country, the state and in York County.

A study by researchers at the Migration Policy Institute examined the role of immigration in the labor market. That report, released in August, noted an expected decline in GDP growth over the next decade is due in part to slow growth of the labor force.

Researchers stated that U.S. labor force growth is currently one-third of its recent historical average, and it is projected to slow further as population aging and lower birth rates take their toll on labor supply. Admitting more immigrants is one way U.S. policymakers can bolster growth in the workforce and the economy, the report said, and a larger role for immigrant workers could also help mitigate other symptoms of a slowing economy, including low productivity growth, declining domestic geographic mobility and falling entrepreneurship.

“That is definitely the angle that we need to bring up to actually talk about immigration,” said Thais Carrero, the director of the Pennsylvania chapter of CASA based in York who attended Friday’s event.

CASA is a nonprofit organization that works to organize, advocate for, and expand opportunities for Latino and immigrant people in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

“I think we’ve been discussing other rhetoric for far too long, and what we really need to focus on is the economic impact of immigration,” she said.  “If we bring to light the economic impact, and if we make people understand that this is not just people coming in to just be here, but to actually contribute to the economy and fill these jobs that are available that other people are not able to take, I think the discussion will definitely take a different turn.”