Open Doors

"Live long and prosper." -- Spock

"Now is the winter of our discontent." -- Shakespeare

"Go west, young man." -- Horace Greeley

   Newcomers are still welcome to America -- if they have needed skills, are well educated and/or plan to invest $1 million in a new company that will employ ten people. The federal government has a program called Entrepreneur Pathways, designed to help these folks get an entry visa.
   There are five "preference categories" listed by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) available to those who want to become permanent residents, These are the areas with the lowest unemployment rate, and therefore the greatest need for new workers. And if these jobs can't be filled by U.S. citizen-residents, the door is open to newcomers. (Here's a link to that government web site:
http://wh.gov/5COq#.UNN99jaf1Us.email )
These are the categories:

-- Extraordinary abilities
-- Professionals
-- Skilled workers
-- "Special immigrants," including foreign service employees and religious workers
-- Investors who will put $1 million into a new firm with ten full-time workers.

   Consider: Immigration may be a leading indicator of economic progress -- up or down. So there may be a correlation between migration and jobs, and in turn the economy of a nation. Migrants follow the jobs, just as farm workers follow the ripening crops ready for harvest.

   Even those opposed to substantial immigration of low-skill, low-education workers are aware of the employment difference. The Center for Immigration Studies (www.cis.org) cites government data showing an unemployment rate of just 4.6 percent for college graduates in the third quarter of 2012, compared to 23.4 percent for those who have not finished high school.
   So there is also, it seems, a correlation between education and employment. How is it, then, that so many recent graduates complain they can't find a job?
   Employers have maintained for several months that skilled manufacturing jobs are available in America, but many applicants don't have the skills needed, and that's why manufacturing is going overseas.
   Some jobs, however, can't go overseas, and that includes fields like oil and gas exploration in Montana. The New York Times reports that some young workers are deferring college for an oilfield job paying as much as $50,000 yearly. The job may not last, they admit, but they figure on making money while the oil flows.
   The unemployment rate throughout Montana was 5.8 percent in November, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, compared to 7.7 percent nationally. Highest rates were in Nevada (10.8 percent) and Rhode Island (10.4 percent). The lowest jobless rates were in North Dakota (3.1 percent), Nebraska (3.7 percent), and South Dakota (4.4 percent).

  Consider: Is college right for everyone in today's employment market? Is a trade school a better option than liberal arts? Time was, the big money to be made had been in the financial sector. Emphasis on "had been." For the time being, Gordon Gekko and his fellow masters of the universe are not even "has beens."