While some politicians in Washington rail against immigration, particularly undocumented immigrants, the reality is that the country, including New England, is becoming more dependent on immigrants to fill job vacancies.
More than 17 percent of workers in New England and across the country are foreign born, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Goldman Sachs puts the number closer to 19 percent.
The Federal Reserve says that half the population growth in New England is attributable to immigrants, noting that if not for immigrants Connecticut’s population at the last census would have decreased. In Rhode Island, the Federal Reserve says, nearly 60 percent of the state’s population growth is from foreign-born residents.
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs says, in a report issued in August, that while immigrants are playing a large role in filling vacancies in the workforce, immigrants are likely to play an even larger role in the future, with an expected half million immigrants added to the workforce over the next three quarters.
Goldman Sachs also reports that as of June there were more than 3.6 million more open jobs than unemployed workers to fill them.
“Labor force participation rates among native-born residents in New England were flat in the years leading up to 2020 and have not fully recovered from their sharp declines during the early months of the pandemic,” the Federal Reserve says in a regional economic brief released in late November.
Meanwhile, the report says that “labor force participation” among “foreign-born workers was trending upward before the pandemic, and rates have recovered more quickly than those for their native-born counterparts.”
The report also focuses on visas for high-tech programs and seasonal workers, both declining sharply, “exacerbating worker shortages reported by hotels and other tourism-related establishments and in tourism-depending regions of New England.”
Tourism officials in Rhode Island’s coastal communities, including Evan Smith, executive director of Discover Newport, have often noted how visa problems have resulted in shortages of employees at restaurants and other hospitality related businesses.
There have been numerous reports of restaurants curtailing hours, or streamlining menus, as these businesses struggle to fill front and back of house positions.
In New England, immigrants, according to the Federal Reserve brief, offset a growing concern of an aging workforce population.
“An older population in which a larger share of workers is reaching typical retirement ages can have negative implications for labor force participation rates,” the Federal Reserve says.
The Federal Reserve also says that since immigrants tend to be younger than native-born residents, it helps “mitigate a demographic imbalance,” in which New England has a higher percentage of older residents, older workers, than the rest of the country.
Riley Sullivan, a senior policy analyst with the New England Policy Center and author of the Federal Reserve Boston’s brief, says “foreign-born workers have contributed substantially to the national and regional economy. The tight labor market combined with the demographic trends of New England signal that an influx of younger workers may be necessary to return to historic levels of labor force participation.”
He suggests that policymakers consider reforming temporary visa programs that would improve “the efficiency of immigration processes” that would ensure a continued supply of workers over all industries.
