How quickly they go from "they're not taking your job" into "they should take your job because we don't want to pay the wage/salary that a citizen would expect"

This video needs to correct one thing- student visa is NOT a path. It is legally classified as non-immigration visa and any showing of immigration intent could lead to a denied application. It is often a dead-end road. And it would be unethical to mislead anyone as an “path.” It is no different than an extended tourism visa.

I like how companies like to repeat mantra on millions of empty job posts. However, they don't say that they offer humiliating salary and working conditions. It's like if I said that I'm looking for a person to clean my house, work in my garden, be my personal chef and driver, 6 days a week, for monthly salary 1k$ gross. And than I'm very schocked and angry when no one applies, thereafter I scream at the government to allow people from eg India to come to US and work for me (and represent myself as a philanthropist and savior, coz they worked in India for 50$).

The issue is that no society can survive when people can break laws with no consequences. Whether it is shoplifting in San Francisco, crossing the border illegally in Texas, or not paying income taxes from China, then everybody loses faith and respect for the laws.

I think that the real problem is they set all these difficult requirements for legal immigrants while opening the door for illegal ones

12 million unfilled jobs. How many of those provide a livable wage for that area?

I live in CA and was in a job search for 15 months. Most of these jobs often look for 3+ years of work experience in the same field and/or a masters. Employers aren't willing to take time to teach people things that realistically don't take much time to learn or master. Many decent well paying jobs have 90, 100, 200 or even 300+ applicants. The competition is almost insurmountable. Then there are places also list "urgently hiring" and don't respond for 3-6 months after applying. In addition Ive been denied about a dozen jobs because of my medical history. Also, just because there are jobs open doesn't mean employers are motivated to fill the roles. Employers are likely taking months or years running their company with an over worked skeleton crew because the thought of another 40-50k salary(or three) to pay is too much for them in this zombie economy. All I could get hired at was a job working manual labor for 2.3k a month. Working with illegal immigrants at a golf course. I am the only one who can read and write in English and have a bachelors. Upwards mobility is dead.

one of the reasons locals can’t fill in some of the available work openings that require a degree is because education here in the US is so expensive.

The biggest problem is the lack of Good Employers. Way too many are undercutting their employees to increase their own earnings.

I am from Arkansas, a very conservative Republican state. Arkansas is a chicken state, which includes Tyson (the world's largest meat producer). Every single chicken plant in Arkansas is comprised almost entirely by illegal immigrants, and every single one of those chicken plants are owned and operated by conservative Republicans. Employing illegal immigrants has been so lucrative for these conservative Republicans, three of them even sit on the UofA board. These conservative Republicans did not employ illegal immigrants (which is, and always has been illegal) because they were better workers, but because they were cheaper workers and more easily manipulated (especuially if they become injured on the job).

[UPDATE: US state department has allowed me to rejoin my parents process after reviewing our petition. The comment you will read below is from when I was stuck in a really difficult legal situation.] Waited 17 years in line with my family to finally get a call for our green card interview. Long story short, they told me that I've aged-out from my parents process and that makes me ineligible. The fact that I haven't been in the country of my birth since middle school - finished my undergraduate degree in applied mathematics at Texas - got a job in an American corporation in the software field - makes my current situation unbearable. I'm now stuck in a legal malaise going back and forth between peitions and the USCIS to grant me my friking PR. My family is American. My close friends are American. My co-workers are American. Here I am..no clue what's next for me once my work permit expires in 2025. The fact that I thought about joining the USAF as a reservist and contribute to the republic because of the opportunities it had given me..sigh

Most Americans find it hard to retire comfortably amid economy downtrend. Some have close to nothing going into retirement, my question is, will you pay off mortgage as a near-retiree, or spread money for cashflow, to afford lifestyle after retirement?

The reality here is simple. Labor shortage is the only thing giving more leverage to young workers to negotiate better salaries. 30 years ago it took 2-4x yearly salaries to buy a home, now it's 10x. Boomers already have homes and other assets/capital. Now they are complaining that no one wants to come and work for $15/hour, of course retirees don't want to work themselves. Now they are pushing to let more ppl in to compete with young Americans. Of course there will be declining birth rates, where are we going to raise all the children?? Lots of schools are closing because of aging population. And aging retirees don't care for families, they only care to stay rich until they pass away. "Got mine, screw everyone" mentality, well others can play that game, too.

There are plenty of international students with US graduate degrees who can't stay in the US now because it's nearly impossible to get work visas. Right now the US doesn't want skilled immigrants OR unskilled immigrants. They only accept people who marry US citizens. Think about what kind of people that kind of immigration system attracts.

Many are ghost jobs too. And they are not paying enough to live. Which is frustrating. No longer is it possible to say “having a job is enough”. “Having a good paying job that is not toxic and does not lead you to burn out” is enough💯. They are cooking the books in this regard.

Securing a job as an immigrant world wide is really difficult, how do everyone expect us to survive.

Workforce participation is declining in the US. Adding immigrants won't solve the issue. Wages need to go up and even STEM graduates have hard time getting into their fields. The job openings are unfilled for many reasons: low pay, poor location, insecure employment, fake job postings, unrealistic requirements, toxic work environment, poor reputation, uncompetitive benefits, etc. You might find a desperate immigrant to fill that position, but even they will quit as soon as they find something better.

I'm American where are these 9 million jobs at?

There are no 12 million professional good paying jobs open. What we have is millions of unskilled, hard labor, low wage jobs that don't pay enough to satisfy the 3x the rent requirement.

It sucks to say, but these companies would take advantage of the new flood of workers and not have the expectation of raising their wages. People are finding it harder to work either because you need to take on debt to get an education to get a job or the current job needs to pay more to the point where it is probably easier to live on the streets or in cars or something.

No president can solve this alone. Congress only cares about getting re-elected, not solving for solving our most pressing economic problems.

I'm an immigrant. Been a U.S. citizen for 37 years. Became a chef, served the Army, pay my taxes, never been arrested. I agree with both sides on the issue. We can't just let anyone and everyone in but, we can't stick to the stupid old laws that are restrictive and preventive. Our birthrates are so low as in my home Country of Korea because no one can fuqqing afford to have children. Start making child care reasonable and affordable and I'm sure people would have more kids.

I have a friend from the EU who graduated from an Ivy League school with an economics degree and worked at a big 4 consulting firm. After his post-college visa years were finished (3 yrs), he’d lost the green card lottery 3 years in a row and was worried that he wouldn’t be able to stay in the US if his employer wouldn’t sponsor him. That blew my mind…if even THIS guy, who had a zillion advantages and all kinds of in demand skills couldn’t find a way to stay here, how could anyone else have a chance??? The system is so broken it’s crazy.

Tech companies want H-1B workers because those workers are effectively trapped into employment by the sponsoring company. Their ability to stay in the US is contingent on remaining employed by their sponsoring company. It's a version of indentured servitude

This is not honest report. You cant claim 9-10 million desks that are empty and then compare that to the illegal immigration at the southern border that are low skilled cheap labor workers at best. If this was a real discussion we should discuss the employment and education visa policy to bring people in to the country from all over the world with high skills and not just at the southern border

The pay doesn’t support most American families to survive. You can barely rent and own a home. Wages are so low for average Americans that it’s impossible to have kids and raise them properly.

I have been in the US for 6 years coming from Brazil in a student visa. Graduated and I am now working with a work visa which is about to expire. Had a meeting with a lawyer about a green card and was told that the I had only a few options, and they would take a bit long. This country pretty much leaves people no option but marry someone or stay illegally here. Fortunately, I have a pretty comfortable life in my own country and I love Brazil but not everyone is that fortunate and a lot of people stay illegal due to a lack of options.

I setup a small tech start up in India. Previously many of our best people would end up leaving after a couple of years to the US. Now that has slowed down significantly, which has been very helpful for us.

Or pay living wages and address the cost to have children? Open boarders will help the rich

It's all fine and good until you realize the only reason employers want immigration is so they never have to raise wages. Which then leads to a plummeting birth rate because people working "well paying" engineering jobs even can't afford a child. Address the root causes first before trading one problem for another.

USA need to learn from Australia regarding immigration policy. Australia doesnt take asylum seekers and refugee. But they can look past that status if they found you skilled enough to fill in the workforce based on each state's Skilled Occupation List. its brilliant.

Receiving $2,220 a month from the US taxpayers to do absolutely nothing... I wouldn't wanna work either

"Meanwhile office desks sit empty" everyone knows that the desks are empty but the jobs are STILL being done right? It's not like the business is going under. The commercial real estate business is going under, that's all.

My family and I own a business here in the US through the E2 Visa system, despite creating many jobs in the US and paying taxes we have no path to permanent residency (let alone citizenship) unless one of us marries an American Citizen. Would love for congress to explain how this makes sense.

This is why I gave up on any idea of immigration, be it the US or Europe. Companies come tooth and nail to try and bring you to their country, but the country itself doesn't want you there. It doesn't want your family there. It only wants your hard earned expertise and taxes. If it could strip you of your skills and leave the human behind, it just would, and it makes sure to make this very clear during all steps of immigration by making everything as hard and humiliating as it can.

My husband literally makes over $200,000 a year and his employer still won’t sponsor his green card, just to give you an idea of hard this is.

omg just make colleges affordable again and labor shortage will sort itself out. im in $120k in debt for a flipping engineering degree smh.

I did not hear any specifics about what industries have a shortage of workers. Pretty vague reference to 9 million empty desks. That is just because everyone is working from home😂

There are jobs nobody wants to do, nobody wants to do them because the pay is awful. In a lot if those jobs the pay is only awful because the employers have gotten away with paying slave wages forever.

I was an international student with an MS and a MBA. Only one in my class to not have a job offer before graduating, I was also the only international student..... it is incredibly difficult. The average immigrant in the USA is about 10 years behind in their career compared to host country folks.

As a Canadian my two biggest fears for the long term health of our economy is if US immigration policies becomes more like Canada's or if Canada's immigration policies become more like the US's.

I think there should also be a work visa for skilled workers in industries, construction (specialty fields like electrical, water ++) and specialty maintenance (trains, planes, diggers, tunnels boring machines ++) Many of these professionals have education that exceed or can rival a bachelors degree or more in length and that should be recognized and they can bring important new perspectives to these areas.

They were saying mere weeks ago "the replacement theory " is a false conspiracy theory. 😂

I can tell you that as an American without a college degree living in the DMV (dc area) that immigrants are definitely taking jobs from Americans. But this area is filled with lots of suburban college educated folk - the folk that have degrees and vote democrat don't compete with the immigrants for jobs so it's easy for them to say and vote in favor of policies that allow illegal immigrants. In other words they're not forced to live upon their ideology

Great but people like me who want to find work cannot find work because I live in a dense city, they require you to have experience to even get into these jobs and I'm faced with the problem of jobs needing you to have experience to work, but I cannot get work experience if no one hires. So it's just a infinite loop of issues where I live.

Wages simply haven't kept up with inflation, that's what this "labor shortage" truly is. Adding cheaper immigrant labor solves nothing

They need to hire Americans before this. I know plenty of qualified and functional Americans who are struggling to find jobs that are being filled by foreign bodies.

Pay people livable wages and maybe people will take jobs and keep them.

One gentleman said it best, we should be looking for young and healthy adults, preferably with a skill. Not just everyone. When my family applied to a green card from Bulgaria both of my parents had to show proof of a work skill/experience. My mom was a pastry chef for 20 years and my dad worked in construction(interior design/renovations) for just as long.

I was born and raised in Mexico. My mom and siblings are all naturalized U.S. citizens. I was not able to get my green card due to my age. I was 18 years old, and wanted to serve in the marines. However, I was never allowed to do so. Went to college on an F1 visa, and wanted to create a business using and E2 visa, but when I learned that neither of those options are a path to permanent residence - I decided to pack my bags, moved back to my home country, and decided to go to school online. What hurts the most, is that soon, I will reach the age limit for the marine corp, and it breaks my heart that I will never be able to join.

The most idiotic thing our country does is educate foreigners in our top universities and not allow them to contribute in our country. If we allow foreigners to be educated at out top universities we need to give them the option to contribute to our country. We need all the brightest of the world to contribute to our country. It's what keeps our country number 1 economically. The will of the people who wish to work hard and make our country better.

We don't need more college educated paper pushers running policy. We need more America first candidates that understand that illegal immigration lowers the wages for these skilled construction positions. If we had less people coming here living off our tax money and diluting wages, the market would be paying better for these positions.

The main reason is people already living here are screwed over by imagrent layber as it undercuts the job market. The reason many jobs are not being filled is the skill training need is unaffordable or no one is willing or able to work for the pay offered.

Also for foreign student studying PhD in the US, the US would rather have them stay and deliver their talent, instead of cultivating the talent PhDs for other countries

US has made it difficult for young people to have children, so now it is just cheaper to import “ready cheap” families from abroad.

So I lived in the US from 1994 to 2011. First I was on a student visa and got my university education in the States. Then I was on a Trade NAFTA visa for about six months (I quit that job because it and where I was living was affecting my mental health). Then I was on an H1-B for 2 years at a different company, who then had mass layoffs. I was hired by a third company on an H1-B but the US government lost my paperwork and didn’t tell my employer for ELEVEN MONTHS. During this limbo time I couldn’t work or leave the country. My employer paid my rent and gave me mall gift cards so I could get food. It was horrendous. I stayed there for two years before I was fired for speaking out about how employees were being treated badly by a new policy (long story, but I lived in an ‘at will’ state and I was dumb for sticking up for my principles). So then I was an ‘illegal’ immigrant for the rest of my time in the US. For 4 years I worked for a company that didn’t care. Then I worked as an independent contractor (I’m a programmer), and did odd jobs on the side like photography and book editing. And I left in the Obama years as amnesty looked increasingly remote. And the irony is I have aunts and uncles who became US citizens without living in the US because my grandmother was a US citizen. But because the law that allowed them to do that had an arbitrary cut off date before my mother was born, she could not become a US citizen through that route. I have generations of American ancestors (literally going back to the Mayflower) and I could not become a US citizen. Oh and to clarify, with H-1B the visa is attached to the job, not the employee. However if you immigrate via H-1B, you can only have that status for 6 years, by which time you need to start the green card process. If you switch jobs, you have to start over. And at the time I was on the H1-B, the processing time for getting a green card was seven years. The math ain’t mathing. I hope it’s changed. When I was an immigrant the US system was hopelessly broken. Now I am a UK permanent resident. The UK system isn’t great, but it isn’t completely dysfunctional (yet). I try to discourage anyone wanting to immigrate to the US; don’t put yourself through that nonsense unless you come from some really horrendous country and have no other options.

9 million infilled jobs….. what jobs? You mean the low wage retail or fast food jobs which don’t have benefits or pay enough to make ends meet?

Did they really just interview a guy from the Heritage foundation. LOL. Why not just get Marjorie Taylor Green instead.

I highly doubt that there are 9 million job openings. Some of these companies say they're hiring to get tax credits from their local government. Could you prove me wrong?

And then all of a sudden AI comes and disrupted both sides of the border.

Solve this problem by taking people off of disability, and force these people to go back to work. There are some people who truly are disabled ie: those with cerebral palsy etc. But there are many people, I have spoken to personally, that are on disability benefits that can go and shop all day or work on the side for money under the table in the exact same feild they used to work in. What about those who have eaten themselves so fat that they can not get out of their chair? Guess what happens when you don't have money to eat, you lose weight and are able to move again. Juat saying let's look at who WE are giving free money to before taxing MORE, those who are already struggling to survive and feed their families. STOP bringing immigrants for Citizens to support.

The reason why US prefers immigration through family reconciliation, is b/c US does not have social benefits. If an immigrant has family around, they can help him out in times of need. If you bring in a person just for work, without family, then that person will end up on a street if they are out of a job.

OPT is nightmare too, specific non-immigrants meaning who foreign study in the US through university need job in the U.S. depending what major and job need but can kick them to hometown ASAP

Yep, CNBC is here for the top 1%. There are millions of people in this country with college degrees in the working poor.

Empty desks? What kind of jobs do you think illegal immigrants fill?

Well done

Because jobs aren’t available. I have noticed a significant decrease in job postings within my high demand healthcare field. Employers are cutting back drastically.

If you apply legally for immigration it costs thousands, takes years and you need a lawyer to figure out the system. If you just pay the Mexican cartel a "fee" you will be in the USA in a day and on a bus to NYC. Those working illegally still must pay taxes and are provided an Individual Taxpayer ID Number or (ITIN) which just happens to have a card and number sequence exactly like a Social Security number, so most just say that's what it is. So basically, we gave our immigration system over to the Mexican cartels and that's where it is today. The cartels were also given a code to access the appointments on the CBP One app, so of course they charge a fee to get the appointment now too. If this was "hacked" they system would have been shut down and fixed, but no. This is business as usual.

The Age of Easy Money is over. Most of this huge surge in job openings will be going away. The last thing we need to do is knee jerk to flooding the labor market over a problem that inflation measures are sorting out already.

Their are so many illegal workers in the US with no plans of returning to their country of origin so put them to work legally is the question cause they all working already

UK gov needs to hear this

There's not a shortage of labor there's a shortage of pay where I am it's 6 to $8,000 just to live a comfortable life but pays don't compute

I like how they slipped in the climate change BS like it has something to do with anything about this conversation.

We have the workers. Is just that people don't want to work for slave wages, but we have illegals who would be more than willing

I want there to be a labor shortage. It might force companies to actually compete on wages and give us non suit folks some cash for once. My disagreement with immigration is purely economic, the presence of immigrant labor makes workers compete for jobs instead of companies for workers. It favors suits.

Biased report! I saw firsthand Eastern Indians with Master degrees selected for highly paid, state government positions in Sacramento California over American citizens who also had graduate degrees! All in the name of “diversity” in the workplace. Every country should decide requirements for entry & migration! I would love to live in Guernsey. However, as an immigrant I’m required to have 200K in savings to prove I can financially care for myself. Only those with critical job skills can bypass this financial requirement! United States cannot afford to feed and house 7-10 million economic migrants (including getaways) who have showed up here illegally during Biden’s presidency!

Hope CNBC can make a video on the challenges of legal immigration, e.g., decades- or multi-year long EB-2 green card process for Indian and Chinese immigrants, lottery system to get the first H1B visa, etc.

alot of the problem with the working market is the division between wealth. high class has been getting further and further away from the middle class.

@CNBC could you please make a video about the fight for $15 a hour federal minimum wage.

America is not just an economy, it is a culture and immigrants impact this. I immigrated to Germany over 20 years ago, my partner, though technically a German, is a daughter of immigrants and raised as such. We both try to embrace the culture, but one look in our fridge and pantry and our immigration influence becomes clear.

Can we focus on job placements program that actually works.. Small business are struggling because no want to work a labour intensive jobs and then worry about large companies

This CNBC video production embodies a textbook example of the "Hegelian Dialectic"; a tried and true method to controlling an outcome. 1.) the architect creates a problem for the purpose achieving some future advantage (thesis); 2.) target’s negative reaction (antithesis); 3.) offer the target a solution to the problem that is advantageous the architect (synthesis).

Very informative,couldn't comment,im just LISTENING andlearning,and looking at thecomments below,i see both sides,keeping an open mind because im don't know enough about it ,glad im watching..

I wish the us made it cheaper and easier to immigrante legally especially for those who do bachelors or master in the us

I don't think there is a real labor shortage in most places of the world that claim it now. If there is a shortage of food -- the price goes up because people want to eat anyway. There are industries where wages and work conditions are objectively worse than they were couple decades ago, but "we have labor shortage". If labor shortage was a real thing -- wages would be higher than they are now, because the employee would have an advantage to negotiate a better deal for themselves. I only have one explanation to all of this: if a job posting is open for months -- that can mean not only that there are no reasonable matches for this position, but also that it is cheaper for an employer to wait X months to find a worker desperate enough to accept the offer at the lowest wage possible. If I'm right -- pushing labor shortage agenda may be very beneficial for big business to cut labor costs. Which kinda makes sense since the interest rates become higher and thus revenues are not that boosted by influx of cash in the economy (in broad terms).

Not a labor shortage, theres a lack of pay.

This video forgets the issue of productivity and salaries. Cheap immigrant labor discourages investments in productivity by lowering salaries. Without immigration, producers would be forced to invest in tools to make workers more productive and workers would benefit with higher salaries. Jobs would be occupied by US citizens because today there are many people in the US who could work but don’t because salaries are unattractive to them. Cheap labor from abroad perpetuates this situation

The best question is why doesn't the government allow people to vote on if immigration should be open to all or not. Politicians don't want American people to vote on it because they know it would be banned.

I see tons of pregnant women… and tons of newborn babies in Las Vegas. Most of them don’t speak English. They like the government handouts.

This should be done on a state basis and not a national basis. We are separate states not a single state nation.

does it effect negotiating for higher wages of unskilled labor?

Let’s not forget the felons these companies won’t hire

"What better way to take someone's country than get them to leave it!"- Wardo Rants.

I migrated to Australia because of the retrogression in USCIS enforced on my country. Many years later and after being naturalised, I applied for a job in the US for which I am fully qualified and registered to do and I have an employer, I wanted to be closer to family members who are on the other side of the world. To my surprise, USCIS still assesses my case from country of origin despite me no longer having citizenship there and have established a life in Ausrtralia and it is still retrogressed. This is quite perplexing and frustrating at the same time. I think a points-based system like Aus, Canada, and NZ makes a lot more sense to address your labour needs.

@CNBC, I just wanna say that for those who want a green card or visa for an "alien with extraordinary abilities" is very risky to give it a shot because of the extremely high application fee

There are plenty of people in the UK who would love to immigrate to the US.

You can't be anti-immigration and pro-capitalist at the same time

is it possible to give some of the abandoned land and city in the mid and south and help them to make living? I just saw several videos on KZfaq of those area.

Maybe should come up with the solutions to settle down the homeless, who's in need of a roof, and already skills with degrees and want to work to contribute to the society

We need boomers to get out of the way. It's actually cheaper for our economy for them to retire as soon as possible. Millennials are more forgiving and would open more opportunities for others than boomers ever had.