Mon, 25 Feb 13The mechanisms for evaluating US labour market needs and admitting workers are “broken or non-existent”, and there is the need for significant overhaul of the way lesser-skilled visa are issued, according to a joint statement from the US Chamber of Commerce and federation of trade unions – the AFL-CIO.

Calling current immigration policies “rigid, cumbersome and inefficient”, the two organisations also say in the statement that after discussions playing out over recent months, they have agreed around several areas of principle:

1. US workers “should have a first crack at available jobs”, meaning that there should be an improvements to ensure job openings in lesser-skilled occupations reach the maximum number of workers, particularly in disadvantaged communities.
2. There are instances when employers will not be able to fill job openings with American workers, and legislation must “permit businesses to hire foreign workers without having to go through a cumbersome and inefficient process”. To this end, there is the need for “a new kind of worker visa program that does not keep all workers in a permanent temporary status, provides labor mobility in a way that still gives American workers a first shot at available jobs, and that automatically adjusts as the American economy expands and contracts”.
3. Greater transparency, along with the creation of a data-led process, is needed, in addition to which “a professional bureau in a federal executive agency, with political independence analogous to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, should be established to inform Congress and the public about these issues”.

The joint statement concludes saying that the two organisations are “now in the middle – not the end – of this process”.