I have a question for ya.
What would the unemployment rate be if we didn't have so many immigrants either not entering the U.S. who would have, or actually going back home (legal or otherwise)? This article below just talks about Mexico, but my guestimate is that we would have at least another million people who were newly unemployed so far this year. Anybody else have
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What would the unemployment rate be if we didn't have so many immigrants either not entering the U.S. who would have, or actually going back home
Being that we have effectively allowed illegal immigrants in with our blessing (in all reality, that IS the policy of the US and has been for at least a few decades) we need to consider them part of our citizenry at least for the purpose of considering REAL unemployment rates...
These workers are so off the books it's ridiculous, but the reality is, this recession may have actually started as early as 2006 (or, perhaps more appropriately, there may have actually been a two-quarter NBER-definition of recession) back in 2006.. if only we counted ALL domestic labor *including all the "illegal" immigration*
Housing began collapsing sometime in 2006. Construction labor on the books held up very, very, very, amazingly well, well into 2007. The implied job loss by the decline in construction was potentially in the millions, and yet, residential construction was shown fairly steady in the data. A real disconnect there.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/business/17construct.html
http://www.qando.net/details.aspx?Entry=6193
I can't tell you what the unemployment rate would look like if we bothered tracking the additional 2 million or so jobs lost via the construction bust that never showed up in the numbers, but my guess is that it would be at least a point or two higher.
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