About those jobs that "Americans won't do"....

[candide]

One of the main issue is that the unemployment rate is rather low, so the construction industry  doesn't expect Americans (US citizens) to be able to fill jobs left by immigrants. 🙂

 

A Martínez: To what extent does the construction industry rely on workers who don't have legal status?

George Carrillo: That number is actually relatively high. We estimate somewhere between 700,000 to 1 million people. What people really need to understand is we have a workforce shortage in this country, period. Now, if you take out about a million Hispanics that are undocumented, it would devastate the construction industry, and not just that. Critical infrastructure, clean drinking water, sewage. Who's going to build our homes? We're about 4.5 million homes behind. All roads lead to construction. If we fail, the broader economy and our way of life dramatically suffers.

https://www.npr.org/2025/06/11/nx-s1-5428169/immigration-raids-construction-workers-hispanic-construction-council

[annotator]

5 hours ago, Hanaguma said:

 

Stealing personal information and/or using a false ID to obtain employment or government benefits is a FELONY.   Driving without a license or insurance are both crimes as well.  So nice try to downplay the seriousness of the situation.  

I wish it were true. Using the National Guard and the Marines is very unpopular according to the polls. They do love that the border is pretty much shut. The rest is kind of mixed.  But I don't think that the opinions of all Americans should matter now.  What's important is that a big majority of MAGA voters support all of Trump's immigration plans now that he's gotten back on board with deporting all illegals and not favoring certain sectors of the economy. We won the elections and elections have consequences. Full speed ahead!!

Once Americans experience the benefits of being rid of  illegals, namely lower crime and better paying jobs,  they will rally around President Trump like no one has ever rallied round a President before.

[mogandave]

19 minutes ago, candide said:

One of the main issue is that the unemployment rate is rather low, so the construction industry  doesn't expect Americans (US citizens) to be able to fill jobs left by immigrants. 🙂

 

A Martínez: To what extent does the construction industry rely on workers who don't have legal status?

George Carrillo: That number is actually relatively high. We estimate somewhere between 700,000 to 1 million people. What people really need to understand is we have a workforce shortage in this country, period. Now, if you take out about a million Hispanics that are undocumented, it would devastate the construction industry, and not just that. Critical infrastructure, clean drinking water, sewage. Who's going to build our homes? We're about 4.5 million homes behind. All roads lead to construction. If we fail, the broader economy and our way of life dramatically suffers.

https://www.npr.org/2025/06/11/nx-s1-5428169/immigration-raids-construction-workers-hispanic-construction-council

But per FRED and the labor force participation rate, about 60% of the workforce is not working. 

 

And if labor is scarce, why have wages not gone up faster? 

 

 

[JTXR]

It appears to be true that the E-Verify system is too easy to game and needs to be strengthened.  This would have been a good thing for DOGE to do instead of the nonsense it did or pretended to do.  What the U.S. needs is a genuine national ID card, but the recent "Real ID" fiasco probably put paid to that....

[mogandave]

One big problem, is that once a facility starts hiring illegal aliens, the supervisors, HR, Inventory and anothat communicated with the employees all have to be bilingual, and once that happens, they quit hiring direct labor that does not speak Spanish. 

 

 

[mogandave]

1 minute ago, JTXR said:

It appears to be true that the E-Verify system is too easy to game and needs to be strengthened.  This would have been a good thing for DOGE to do instead of the nonsense it did or pretended to do.  What the U.S. needs is a genuine national ID card, but the recent "Real ID" fiasco probably put paid to that....

Do you think people should have to show ID to vote? 

 

Getting the Social Security rolls cleaned up is a big part of what DOGE is doing, and that is the first step in strengthening E-Verify. 

[JTXR]

Just now, mogandave said:

Do you think people should have to show ID to vote? 

 

Getting the Social Security rolls cleaned up is a big part of what DOGE is doing, and that is the first step in strengthening E-Verify. 

I think people should have to show a valid ID to register to vote.  If the ID is in fact valid and good, not fake, the registration is enough.

The notion that the Social Security rolls were in dire need of cleaning up is one of the many, many lies DOGE told about what it was doing, but that's another story.  🙂 

[candide]

13 minutes ago, mogandave said:

But per FRED and the labor force participation rate, about 60% of the workforce is not working. 

 

And if labor is scarce, why have wages not gone up faster? 

 

 

Ah! It's Mogandave time now! 🙂

 

Not if you consider people who are able and available for hard physical work. That is, excluding those who are too old, or at student's age. From the data shown, one should also subtract people with disabilities, etc...

 

 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11300060

[mogandave]

1 minute ago, JTXR said:

I think people should have to show a valid ID to register to vote.  If the ID is in fact valid and good, not fake, the registration is enough.

So that’s a no. Anyone can show up, give the name of a registered voter, and vote. 

 

Or just dig a mail-in out of the trash.

1 minute ago, JTXR said:

The notion that the Social Security rolls were in dire need of cleaning up is one of the many, many lies DOGE told about what it was doing, but that's another story.  🙂 

Story is right

[mogandave]

10 minutes ago, candide said:

Ah! It's Mogandave time now! 🙂

 

Not if you consider people who are able and available for hard physical work. That is, excluding those who are too old, or at student's age. From the data shown, one should also subtract people with disabilities, etc...

 

 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11300060

So with labor being scarce, why are wages so low?

[candide]

9 minutes ago, mogandave said:

So with labor being scarce, why are wages so low?

Tell us!

 

BTW  how low are they? 

[mogandave]

6 minutes ago, candide said:

Tell us!

 

BTW  how low are they? 

[frank83628]

2 hours ago, candide said:

Grocery price lower, complete B.S.! 🤣

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/food-inflation

 

Prices lower across the board. Perhaps not in newsoms california due to his mishandling. 

[Magictoad]

About the only job I turned down after looking at it with my own eyes was in an abattoir.  You can dress it up with a fancy French name but it's still "A Slaughter House". I am not a sensitive man nor am I precious about work but this was The Vilest Thing I had ever seen in a job situation in my life so I took a job in an acid plant instead that was dangerous and dirty; 9 explosions on the first day.

[candide]

35 minutes ago, frank83628 said:

Prices lower across the board. Perhaps not in newsoms california due to his mishandling. 

It cannot be true. The price of groceries cannot decrease unless food inflation is negative. There was inflation every month. The price of food did not decrease. It's a lie! 

[BLMFem]

2 hours ago, mogandave said:

 

Posting random pics of babies without any comments is disturbing, especially in this day and age. I hope that pic wasn't posted here by mistake and meant for a more "secretive" group.

[SLOWHAND225]

27 minutes ago, BLMFem said:

 

Posting random pics of babies without any comments is disturbing, especially in this day and age. I hope that pic wasn't posted here by mistake and meant for a more "secretive" group.

Only people with twisted minds would even think that.

[josephbloggs]

On 6/17/2025 at 2:46 PM, Yellowtail said:

There is a minimum wage law in the United States. 

So why are service staff in bars and restaurants paid much less than that?

[Yellowtail]

1 hour ago, josephbloggs said:

So why are service staff in bars and restaurants paid much less than that?

The law mandates service staff in bars and restaurants and other tipped employees earn at least the federal minimum wage. 

 

You not being from the US I guess you would not know that. 

[josephbloggs]

21 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

The law mandates service staff in bars and restaurants and other tipped employees earn at least the federal minimum wage. 

 

You not being from the US I guess you would not know that. 

Incorrect. They can be paid less than the minimum wage as long as tips make it up. It is a stupid rule. Employers should have to pay a fair wage and tips should be a bonus for good service just like it is in pretty much every other civilised nation. The law allows them to be paid as little as $2.13 per hour!

Anyway I can see this is headed for an argument about semantics. I think it is horrendous that an employer can get away with paying someone less than minimum wage. And it also explains your stupid custom of over tipping - patrons are being forced to subside wages and the employer can get away with it.

[Yellowtail]

5 minutes ago, josephbloggs said:

Incorrect. They can be paid less than the minimum wage as long as tips make it up. It is a stupid rule. Employers should have to pay a fair wage and tips should be a bonus for good service just like it is in pretty much every other civilised nation. The law allows them to be paid as little as $2.13 per hour!

What I said was: "The law mandates service staff in bars and restaurants and other tipped employees earn at least the federal minimum wage."

 

You are lying when you say I am incorrect. If their tips do not add up to minimum wage, the employer has to make up the difference.

 

 

5 minutes ago, josephbloggs said:

Anyway I can see this is headed for an argument about semantics.

You lying and claiming what I say is incorrect it not semantics, it is just you lying. 

5 minutes ago, josephbloggs said:

 

I think it is horrendous that an employer can get away with paying someone less than minimum wage.

I do not think there should be a minimum wage. 

5 minutes ago, josephbloggs said:

 

And it also explains your stupid custom of over tipping - patrons are being forced to subside wages and the employer can get away with it.

There it is, you're not from the US and you're just too stingy to want to tip people. 

 

 

 

[Celsius]

How many illegals are teaching English in thailand while in reality all those jobs could be filled by Somchai, Mint and Tiffany from Buriram.

[stevenl]

11 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

What I said was: "The law mandates service staff in bars and restaurants and other tipped employees earn at least the federal minimum wage."

 

You are lying when you say I am incorrect. If their tips do not add up to minimum wage, the employer has to make up the difference.

 

 

You lying and claiming what I say is incorrect it not semantics, it is just you lying. 

I do not think there should be a minimum wage. 

There it is, you're not from the US and you're just too stingy to want to tip people. 

 

 

 

They should be paid by their employer at least minimum wage, with tips extra.

[Yellowtail]

Just now, stevenl said:

They should be paid by their employer at least minimum wage, with tips extra.

Why? 

[stevenl]

Just now, Yellowtail said:

Why? 

It's up to the employer to pay salaries.

[Yellowtail]

1 minute ago, stevenl said:

It's up to the employer to pay salaries.

Why? 

[stevenl]

Just now, Yellowtail said:

Why? 

Now you're trolling.

[Yellowtail]

Just now, stevenl said:

Now you're trolling.

No. you are just unable to support your position, so you say I am trolling.

 

Would it be fairer for the business owner to keep the tips and pay the staff more? 

 

Is it up to a strip joint to pay the strippers? 

 

 

[bunnydrops]

I had a friend who got a job in a meat processing plant. He didn't last 3 days. He told me the work wasn't so bad, it was having to stand in one place for hrs inside a refrigerated room. Still a lot better than working outside in a field or on a roof in 105 degree weather. So as jobs Americans won't do--it is one of the best.

[ronnie50]

On 6/17/2025 at 2:02 PM, Hanaguma said:

According to NBC news, there was a major ICE raid at a meat packing plant in Omaha Nebraska. About half the workers were found to be in the US illegally, using forged or stolen documents like SSN numbers, etc.   All were taken into custody.

 

And then?

 

Within a day, the place was FULL of people applying for jobs. 

 

It is a simple fact that a shortage of labour is good for workers. They can get better pay, better conditions, etc.  And there are enough legal residents in the US to do what needs doing. 

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/omaha-immigration-workplace-raid-aftermath-rcna212931

Did you actually read the news article?

 

"Dozens of prospective employees, many of them Spanish speakers, had been coming in and out of the plant all day. Some were hoping to land a new job; others were coming in for training."

 

Nebraska meat packing jobs average $15/hr (Google). So is Larry Smith, unemployed, uneducated obese 50 year old taking advantage of this raid?