There are, of course, many adjustments newcomers must make, both social, cultural and linguistic, plus overcoming resentment from a narrow minded few who fear anyone not like themselves.
But America continues its recovery from the turbulence of the past decade. The Labor Department reported a jump of 287,000 new payroll jobs in June, as new claims for unemployment benefits fell by 16,000 last week, to a total of 254,000.
For more than a year, weekly new claims nationwide for unemployment benefits have been less than 300,000, the department said.
Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate, which many experts say is a better mark of economic health, remained at 62.7 percent, little changed from earlier months. And the employment to population ration held at 59.6 percent. This means that nearly two-thirds of everyone in the country has a job.
The unemployment rate is far more variable, and that makes it much more newsworthy. This rate, however, is not as accurate as a payroll count, because it's done through a telephone survey. Moreover, it counts only those who are ready, willing and able to work, and are actively seeking work, as a percentage of the total workforce.
The unemployment count does not include people in school, in jail, in hospitals, or retired. Moreover, the jobless rate only estimates these people as a percentage of the civilian workforce. Those in the military are not, by definition, in the civilian workforce.
And for all the wailing by some that boosting the federal minimum wage will ruin business and the economy in general, the average hourly wage nationwide is now $25, according the latest Labor Department report, more than three times the current federal minimum of $7.25. This was set seven years ago, and took effect July 24, 2009.
Many states have set a higher minimum figure, meaning that employers cannot pay less. California and Massachusetts, for example, have a minimum wage level of $10 hourly, and reality dictates that many jobs pay more.
So raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, in several stages over several years, will not be the disaster that many warn of. The harshest effect for many employers may be that their profit margin diminishes.
Moreover, the economic Law of Demand and Supply fixes a pay rate by balancing how many workers are available (supply) and how many workers an employer needs (demand).
There are, of course, some regions and occupations where unemployment is higher than the national average, just as there are areas where the rate is lower than the average. This, in addition to skill levels, helps to establish pay levels.
Employment in Pittsburgh steel mills, for example, has practically disappeared, partly because of more efficient technology and as new mills are built in other regions. Total production, however, has risen over recent decades.
New York City for many years hosted the Garment District in Manhattan, where many newcomers found jobs that were not available to them in their home countries.
In another example, employment in New Jersey was primarily agricultural in the 19th Century, and largely industrial in the early 20th Century. The state then switched to a mostly service economy, where it is today.
Trenton, the state capital, was the home of Roebling Steel, which supplied girders and cables for the Brooklyn Bridge. And Camden was famously the headquarters of the Victor Talking Machine Co., where phonographs were made. That firm was later acquired by RCA, originally known as the Radio Corporation of America.
All of this illustrates that times change, and local and national economies change with them. On the whole, however, more Americans are more prosperous than ever, even as the income gap widens more than it was in the so-called Golden Age of the late 19th Century.
This is not to say that all is well, or even approaches what it could be. But it does help to keep a perspective, even short term, while striving and planning for a better future for all.
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