More than a year after the bill passed, the Biden administration’s Inflation reduction method Jobs are being created across the country, including in Arizona, but the U.S. doesn’t have enough skilled workers to fill those positions.
To alleviate labor shortages, more than 120 business leaders across the country, including nine from Arizona, sign a letter The American Business Immigration Coalition is asking President Biden and his administration to expand work authorization for immigrants.
ABIC political director James O’Neill told reporters at a press conference last week that while IRA projects have billions of dollars at stake, labor shortages make it difficult for some companies to even get excited about them .Consider bidding on these projects.
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Donnie Gibson, CEO General Contractor Civilian Vickers Nevada, who speaks on behalf of the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association, told reporters that older generations of homebuilders are exiting the workforce and there aren’t enough young people interested in the industry to replace them.
“This is an economic emergency,” Gibson said. “That’s a good argument for hiring a motivated immigrant population.”
He added that the costs of the shortage, including paying higher wages and providing more training for workers, are being passed on to consumers.
Like its neighbors to the northwest, Arizona is feeling the pinch of a labor shortage.
The Irish Republican Army brought billions of dollars of investment to Arizona and Thousands of jobs createdbut this does not mean that the country has enough workers to fill these vacancies.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is a semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Taiwan. Postponed opening date According to Construction Drive, the company will close its Arizona wafer factory between 2024 and 2025 because it cannot find enough workers with the right skills in the United States to install its equipment.
In June, the company announced that it would introduce hundreds of own According to Reuters, Taiwanese construction workers have helped bolster its construction workforce.
Brian Tumel, Labor shortages in the construction industry mean it takes longer and costs more to build just about anything, the Association of General Contractors of America’s vice president of public affairs and strategic initiatives told reporters at a news conference.
Tumel said that in an Associated General Contractors survey last year, more than 90 percent of construction companies said they had trouble finding workers, with the two main reasons being that there were not enough qualified candidates and that many were unavailable. Unable to find worker. Pass a drug test.
This has led to projects being curtailed, delayed or canceled, he added.
Companies committed to staying above board compete with those who underbid them because they hire undocumented workers, who are often vulnerable to exploitation because of their immigration status and are paid significantly less than documented workers.
That’s one reason the General Contractors Association of America is advocating for a market-based temporary worker visa program to help alleviate worker shortages while continuing to push for comprehensive immigration reform.
Lisa Winton, CEO of Winton Machinery in Georgia, lamented that machinists are also exiting the industry and there are not enough American workers to replace them.
“I don’t have people to fill positions in the company to grow,” she said.
Winton said she has been placing an ad for a mechanic for the past five months. She spoke with a candidate she wanted to hire, but he applied for a green card eight years ago and still hasn’t received it. His current employer is supporting him through the process, but Winton said her small company can’t handle the challenge without help from the federal government.
She also urged the federal government to issue more work permits to industries that struggle to find interested and qualified workers.
“We respectfully ask that you expand special categories of immigration authorization to assist individuals who can fill labor shortage positions, immigrants to the United States, and long-term immigrant contributors such as Dreamers, farmworkers, and essential workers,” ABIC said in a statement. ”Letter to the Biden Administration.
The coalition advocates for a bipartisan plan from Republican governors. Eric Holcomb of Indiana and Spencer Cox of Utah, backed by Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, gave the States’ authority to sponsor immigrant workers allows each state to determine how many visas each industry requires each year.
“If we as a country can’t grow our own workers, we absolutely have to think outside the box,” Gibson said.
