POLITICAL CONFRONTATION WITH ECONOMIC REALITY: MASS IMMIGRATION IN THE POST-INDUSTRIAL AGE

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POLITICAL CONFRONTATION WITH ECONOMIC REALITY: MASS IMMIGRATION IN THE POST-INDUSTRIAL AGE
An NPG Forum Paper
by Vernon M. Briggs, Jr
February 1990

This is the fourth of a series of NPG FORUM papers exploring the idea of optimum population. As the United States’ population continues to grow, NPG believes it essential to the national well-being that debate be initiated on the question.’ what is the optimum population? The question does not lend itself to formal proof. There are too many assumptions and variables and value judgements. Yet it should be addressed. We have asked several distinguished scholars in different areas of specialization to attempt an answer to the question, even if the answer must rest in part on intuition and feelings. Dr, Briggs is Professor of Human Resource Economics at the New York State School of Labor and Industrial Relations of Cornell University. He has written extensively on the subject of immigration policy and the U.S. labor force. He is a former Chairman of the National Council on Employment Policy.

As the United States enters its post-industrial phase of economic development, its labor market is in a state of radical transformation. A marked break has occurred from the nation’s evolutionary patterns of employment growth as well as in the composition of its labor force. The introduction of new and extensive technological advances now means that more output can be produced with fewer labor inputs. Major shifts in consumer tastes have altered the character of the demand for labor, by contributing to the meteoric growth of the service sector and the decline of the goods sector.

The co-existence of labor shortages and vacant jobs is becoming the operative policy challenge. In such an environment, labor force policies must focus on the qualitative aspects of the supply of labor rather than on its mere quantitative size. The nation does not need more workers per se; it does, however, desperately need specific types of labor to meet the emerging requirements of its post-industrial economy.

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