Immigration & Inflation

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

June 17, 2024

Immigration, authorized or unauthorized, is a challenging topic. In a CNBC story released this morning—How immigrants are helping to keep job growth hot while inflation cools—a blockbuster May jobs report asserts that “immigration has helped the U.S. job market sustain a fiery run in recent months without reigniting inflation.” Goldman Sachs analysts wrote this in a note to clients in May: “Recent immigrants have flowed disproportionately into the parts of the labor force that were particularly tight in 2022, contributing to labor supply in places where it was most badly needed.”

“'We’ve seen labor force supply come up quite a bit, through immigration, through recovering participation,' Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said last Wednesday at the central bank’s press conference following its widely expected decision to keep interest rates flat." “'With labor markets now back in better balance….moderate fluctuations in immigration should have little impact on aggregate wage growth and inflation,' Goldman Sachs analysts wrote.”

The reality is that birth rates in the U.S. started dropping sharply over 25 years ago, and fewer young people means a smaller, present workforce to replace record breaking retirements. A more orderly immigration process would benefit employers and solve a labor market inflection point we’ve known for decades was coming.

News You Can Use

Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker and Fed Governor Lisa Cook kick off the week of economic news with speeches later today. Tuesday brings us May retail sales, industrial production figures for May, business inventories data from May, and several more Fed speeches. Thursday is important as we’ll get May housing starts and building permits. The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey is also out on Thursday morning. We wrap up the week on Friday with existing home sales for May and U.S. leading economic indicators for May.

This is a very light week for companies with scheduled earnings calls. La-Z-Boy and Lennar are scheduled for today, while America’s Car-Mart, KB Home, and Cognyte Software are scheduled for tomorrow. Steelcase, Darden Restaurants, Accenture, Kroger, and Winnebago are among the group with calls later in the week.

Michael J. Quaranta

President

Delaware State Chamber of Commerce

Uniquely Delaware

From WHYY: Delaware’s 14,000 immigrants eligible for naturalization face complex path to citizenship

Despite Delaware’s small size, it is home to a community of over 100,000 immigrants. Only 14,000 are eligible for naturalization.

The American Immigration Council’s 2021 data shows that most of Delaware’s 100,000 immigrants hail from Mexico, India and China — 15%, 9.7% and 7.3%, respectively. A substantial number are employed in finance, construction and health care industries.

“That’s kind of very typical across the nation,” said Steven Hubbard, senior data scientist at the AIC. “There’s about 70,000 immigrants in the Delaware workforce and they work in many different types of jobs. The one that’s very important is health care… We also know that 20% of immigrants are working in [STEM] jobs.”

These immigrant communities significantly contribute to Delaware’s economy and tax base, paying approximately $1 billion in total taxes annually. Read more >

Klasko Immigration Law Partners is dedicated to providing top-tier immigration legal services to corporations of all sizes. Whether it’s a small business needing to hire international talent, a midsized company expanding its global reach, or a large corporation navigating complex immigration regulations, their team of experienced corporate immigration attorneys will assist.

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