OPINION: Republican Party doubles down on labor shortage

With unemployment low, less than 4% (3.5% in Idaho), and small businesses crying for workers, even many stalwart Republicans like the National Federation of Independent Business members, Associated General Contractors and Idaho Dairymen are willing to admit that there is more work than workers. But are they willing to try to do something rather than complain about “lazy workers”? As the invisible hand of the market, of supply and demand, writes the story, there are some things that should be considered.

Certainly one response is to pay more, but that seems to be just trying to cut the same pie into different pieces. Better pay is appreciated by workers and working families but increasing pay for some jobs just starts a bidding war without increasing the number of workers. And the problem is there are too few workers.

For years, the population has not been producing enough workers to replace those lost to retirement. And a wise man (me) once said that there are two forces that cannot be bested — demographics and arithmetic. If the birth rate does not replace the retirement rate, it is inevitable that there will be a shortage.

So how could we handle the shortage? Find more workers, of course.

One of the easiest ways is to increase the availability of child care. Not only has the Idaho Legislature been unsupportive of programs to promote the quality and quantity of early childhood education, they have actually been a barrier when opportunities have been developed by others. Remember the millions in federal money earmarked for child care support that the Biden administration and Congress provided and that the Idaho Republican legislators turned down?

And remember the harassment that Attorney General Raul Labrador unleashed against child care providers?

The result is fewer good child care operators, less space for kids and parents who are required or choose to stay home, leaving an unfilled slot in the workforce. Support those families and many of the mothers and fathers will find their way back into employment.

I know there are some who want a return to the stay-at-home mom and a household supported by a single earner. But that is just not reality. Have they looked at the cost of housing and food lately? It takes two incomes (at least) to support a family, and to do that requires child care. Grandma or Auntie cannot provide it — they are currently working, too.

Another way to help those businesses is to welcome and incorporate workers from other places in the world, places where the economic balance has fewer job openings than workers. Yes, that means immigration.

Keeping workers out when they are needed and beneficial to our economy is counterproductive. And the demographics of an aging U.S. workforce means that acquiring trained individuals will be increasingly important.

Republicans such as columnist Chuck Malloy and Suzie Budge of the NFIB see the problem, and in the past have written about it. Stories that former President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance tell are totally divorced from reality and can only do great harm to the U.S. and Idaho economy.

Can you imagine a dairy operation without immigrants in the workforce? What about construction laborers? Remember when restaurants and shops were closed after COVID-19 because there were not enough retail or food service workers? Now imagine that not only will the inflow of immigrant workers stop, but there is a call for “mass deportation” of those already here. And according to the GOP ticket, it doesn’t matter if they are here legally.

“Deport them” is the refrain. And leave the rest of the family here without one of the breadwinners?

Another consideration is the help those workers and their wages are giving us, particularly us seniors. These foreign workers are unlikely to receive any benefits from Medicare or Social Security to which they and their employers contribute.

It is shameful to fan hate against immigrants — and especially to do so through lies and demagoguery. But the real worry, one that every American should be thinking about, is what happens if the GOP ticket wins and massive tariffs and mass deportation are the future economic policy of the USA.

Rusche, of Clarkston, is a retired physician who served six terms in the Idaho House.