State report: Minnesota needs immigrants to fill jobs and maintain economic growth
March 28, 2018
Goodwill and compassion aside, Minnesota needs more immigrants to fill job vacancies, sustain economic growth and expand the labor market, which has been shrinking over the years as baby boomers continue to age out of the workforce.
That’s the conclusion of a recent report — “Immigrants and the Economy” — that chronicles the past and present of immigration trends to the state and demonstrates how foreign-born workers have contributed to the labor force growth in recent decades.
Authored by Steve Hines and Cameron Macht, economists at the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), the report also sheds light on the need to keep the immigration pipeline open as means of combating the looming workforce shortage in Minnesota.
The release of the “Immigrants and the Economy” comes at a time when some Republican leaders and activists in Minnesota and nationwide are pushing back hard against immigration and calling for plans to limit the stream of legal immigrants into the United States.
Contrary to some of that political rhetoric, the report argues that foreign-born residents are critical for the state’s labor market and that business leaders in Minnesota desperately need them to fill jobs and maintain economic growth.