In September 2016, in the thick of candidate Trump’s superheated rhetoric regarding “bad hombres” coming to ravish our women-folk, the Republican-controlled congress found it politically expedient to allow an extension to the H-2B visa program to expire without reauthorization.
That inaction threatened future troubles for U.S. companies that depend on seasonal labor for temporary, low-skill, non-farm jobs; industries like hospitality, landscape maintenance, construction, and food processing. And now, in the middle of those industries’ first busy season since that lapse, employers large and small here in Trump country are beginning to feel the pain, and to howl. In North Carolina (which went for Trump by a 4 percentage point margin):
International workers are the backbone of the Seaside Farm Market in the remote northern Outer Banks town of Corolla. Only 500 people live there, but up to 50,000 visit every week in the summer.
But for the first time in 23 years, the family-owned produce and seafood market didn’t open this summer. Owners Bill and Julie Grandy weren’t able to get the H-2B visas they needed to bring in the workers from Mexico they’ve employed for years.
They didn’t get a single local applicant for jobs advertised at $15 per hour, Bill Grandy said, calling Corolla a “black hole” for local labor. The husband and wife have both had to take other jobs.
“It’s devastated us,” he said. “We have a half a million dollar investment just sitting there generating no money. I don’t know how to describe it other than (total) disaster.”
“If we can’t open next year, we might have to liquidate and go out of business.”
The Grandys — registered Republicans — live in Currituck County, which went for Trump in a landslide in November (by a 50 percentage-point margin). And their experience is far from unusual here in North Carolina.
Daniel Currin, president of Greenscape Services in Raleigh, said it’s hard to find seasonal landscaping workers because not as many people in the U.S. grow up in agricultural areas. He applied for and received 35 visas this year for workers from Mexico and Guatemala, but still wasn’t able to fill the remaining seasonal openings locally.
The company recently received 28 applications for three open driver positions, he said. But almost half didn’t show up for interviews, some failed background checks, some failed drug tests and some didn’t have driver’s licenses. He wasn’t able to offer any of the 28 applicants a job.
“If there were people who wanted to work seasonally, we’d hire them in a second over going through the H-2B program,” Currin said.
Fred Adams applied for 15 visas for his Morrisville construction company, but was denied. He said he’s found some local workers willing to take seasonal jobs, but not enough, which has limited his company’s sales.
“This isn’t a Republican or Democratic thing, but it turns into that,” Adams said. “Everybody wants to make it political. I wish they’d make it nonpolitical and run a program like they should.”
Both Fred and his wife, Laurie (who manages the family-owned paving company) are registered Republicans.
It’s hard to find local workers who are committed to working 55-hour weeks in construction jobs, said Maribell Romero, office manager for Slip General Concrete in Clinton. She’s applied for H-2B visas for the past two years to no avail, and plans to apply again in the next few weeks to bring in winter workers for two large construction jobs.
“We have the contract in our hands, but we just don’t know how we’re going to do it without any workers,” she said. “We might have to turn down jobs.”
Slip General Concrete’s headquarters is in Sampson County, which went for Trump by a 17 percentage point margin in 2016.
North Carolina’s unemployment rate currently stands at a ten-year low of 4.5%...well below the 5% that many economists consider the “full employment” threshold.
The real irony here is that the artificial guest worker shortage threatens the state’s (and the nation’s) newly rebuilding prosperity. With their business failing, the Grandys likely won’t be doing a lot of eating out this year. With too few laborers to get his company’s work done, Dan Currin might well be tempted to lay off some back-office staff. Fred Adams’ construction company likely won’t be leasing new trucks any time soon. If Slip General Concrete can’t come through on its contracts it might have to let go of some full-time employees.
Guest workers don’t take away Americans’ jobs. In fact, quite the opposite: they’re job-creators.