That and there are also fewer jobs available to teens / young adults. The types of jobs that we are making obsolete, whether through automation or regulation, are the types of repetitive, "unskilled" jobs that were previously offered to people just starting out. I'll take a chance on my 16 year-old nephew if I can pay him $5 / hour but if I have to pay him $15 / hour by law I'd rather have someone with more references. I'm also likely to ask that person to take on more responsibility, too, since my overhead just went up and my margins were paper thin to begin with. So now I need someone with additional experience.
Or you get an unskilled immigrant who has his back against the wall. I read an article claiming this is where teen jobs went, not sure how well supported it is.
It is an well-known secret that the largest and most successful farm in my area extensively uses illegal immigrants for labor. They say that citizens are too unreliable and unproductive for them to be profitable.
How do you know they’re illegal? There’s legal immigrants that get bussed in from Mexico to all the corners of the country for seasonal labor. Just cuz they’re immigrants doesn’t mean their illegal. Of course they could be. But I’m not sure I’d trust the rumor mill to know the difference.
They all but admitted to the practice during a tour. I own a farm and was asking lots of questions, and they actively avoided answering some of my questions on the topic. It was clear as day that they do not care about legal immigration status.
The problem stems from the fact that there are not enough legal immigrants to go around. If they limit themselves to legal immigrants, they would not be able to run as large an operation as they do.
