Report: Farm labort shortages costs Georgia economy millions

[Ban Hammer 14,297]

Farmers can offer higher wages, but I doubt anyone wants to pay $3-$5 for an ear of corn.

corn production is done with skilled labour and machinery. it does not involve hand picking,

one post removed for personal insult, post returned above minus the personal insult.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

I don't really believe its the wages. Some farmers have lifted well above minimum and still haven't reached their quotas. Its the lifestyle. The average America doesn't want to live the migrant worker lifestyle where you live in one place for a few months and end up moving about the country 4-5 times a year.

Agriculture is the one sector where having migrant visas make sense.

[cartaverde 12]

Well, not just Georgia. Alabama is affected too http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2011/12/alabama-cant-find-anyone-fill-illegal-immigrants-old-jobs/45829/

[Susita 175]

I thought you all would find this report from Bloomberg Businessweek interesting:

Why Americans Won't Do Dirty Jobs

There's a lot of truth to what's being said in this article.

Its a hard-to-resist syllogism: Dirty jobs are available; Americans wont fill them; thus, Americans are too soft for dirty jobs. Why else would so many unemployed people turn down the opportunity to work during a recession? Of course, theres an equally compelling obverse. Why should farmers and plant owners expect people to take a back-breaking seasonal job with low pay and no benefits just because they happen to be offering it? If no one wants an available jobespecially in extreme timesmaybe the fault doesnt rest entirely with the people turning it down. Maybe the market is inefficient.

Another good quote:

Massey says Americans didn’t turn away from the work merely because it was hard or because of the pay but because they had come to think of it as beneath them. “It doesn’t have anything to do with the job itself,” he says. In other countries, citizens refuse to take jobs that Americans compete for. In Europe, Massey says, “auto manufacturing is an immigrant job category. Whereas in the States, it’s a native category.”

Edited December 20, 2011 by Susita

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

I thought you all would find this report from Bloomberg Businessweek interesting:

Why Americans Won't Do Dirty Jobs

There's a lot of truth to what's being said in this article.

Another good quote:

It sounds like building contractors in Alabama want something for nothing. Construction has always paid decent ...at least here on the West coast and when they can't find legal citizens to fill construction jobs somethings wrong. I know for a fact that places like California and Oregon that builders have been hiring illegals so they don't have to pay a livable wage. The are building 200,000+ homes with illegal labor and making out like fat cats with the profits. It's pure bs. They are breaking the law by hiring illegals and they get away with it.

They have zero morals.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/why-americans-wont-do-dirty-jobs-11092011_page_5.html

“If those Alabamians on unemployment continue to not apply for jobs in construction and poultry, then [Republican politicians] are going to have to help us continue to find immigrant workers,” says Jay Reed, who heads the Alabama Associated Builders & Contractors. “And those immigrant workers are gone.”

Edited December 20, 2011 by Why_Me

[Susita 175]

It sounds like building contractors in Alabama want something for nothing. Construction has always paid decent ...at least here on the West coast and when they can't find legal citizens to fill construction jobs somethings wrong. I know for a fact that places like California and Oregon that builders have been hiring illegals so they don't have to pay a livable wage. The are building 200,000+ homes with illegal labor and making out like fat cats with the profits. It's pure bs. They are breaking the law by hiring illegals and they get away with it.

They have zero morals.

It's true. Many construction jobs do pay well here in NY too, but those are for the skilled carpenters, framers, sheetrockers, etc. The general "laborer" jobs pay crummy and I notice a lot of illegals pick up those jobs, where they get paid a daily rate. Also, it's easier for them to pick up a day laborer when necessary (i.e. business is up) and let them go when there's no work. Plus they don't pay benefits or taxes on the worker. Most Americans don't want those jobs because you don't know if you have work tomorrow & the salary's not good.

[david'sgirl 134]

All the farmers have to do is pay fair wages for hard work, instead of the current slave handouts to illegal aliens, and the workers will come. Legal ones.

If I have to pay a bit more for my produce (aside from the fact that I buy local from the Farmers Market), so be it. I'll do that with a smile on my face, knowing that I'm helping to open jobs for Americans and Green Card holders.

I agree. We also support our local Farmer's market. The one closest to us in Maine has several farms run by new immigrants from Somalia and we are happy to help them out knowing they came here the right way and are working hard to earn the American dream.

[ScottnIzabela 25]

riddle me this batman:

who did this work before the illegals came en masse to rob us blind?

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

riddle me this batman:

who did this work before the illegals came en masse to rob us blind?

You don't know much about the American south, do you?