Immigrants and Teenage Summer Employment

A common fear about lower-skilled immigrants is that they will push native-born Americans with similar skills out of the labor market. In recent years, this argument focuses on the harm tonative-bornteenagers who are most substitutable with lower-skilled immigrants —especially those on theH-2B visa for seasonal non-agricultural work. This effect is supposed to be greatest in thesummer time when American teenagers are on school vacation.  Teenagers are working less than they used to but the U.S. labor market has  changed in myriad ways that are unrelated to immigration, especially when it comes to the opportunity cost of teenagers. In responding to anop-ed by Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) that lamented the loss of teenage work ethic (an oxymoron if my personal observations and experience as a teenage worker is representative), economistErnie Tedeschi showed that increased enrollment in summer school can explain virtually the entire decline in their summer employment, at least for the month of July (Figure 1). The data allowed Tedeschi to separate part-time and full-time school enrollment after 1989. Years ago, Inoted that increased summer school enrollment explained much of this decrease by leaning heavily on thisChicago Fed Letter that stated:[w]e find no compelling evidence that associates the recent decline in teen participation with greater labor market competition due, for example, to larger cohorts of teens or an increase in the numbers of unskilled workers entering the l...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs