Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

1/26/00 News Report -- Reuters News Service

WASHINGTON, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on
Wednesday relaxing U.S. immigration laws could help ease pressure in the labor
market, where certain workers are becoming increasingly hard to find.

Greenspan, answering questions from the Senate Banking Committee which is
considering his renomination, said aggregate demand for workers was putting
significant pressure on the labor force.

"Aggregative demand is putting very significant pressures on an
ever-decreasing available supply of unemployed labor," Greenspan said. "The
one obvious means that one can use to offset that is expanding the number of
people we allow in."

"Reviewing our immigration laws in the context of the type of economy which we
will be enjoying in the decade ahead is clearly on the table in my
judgment," he added.

In recent months, the U.S. unemployment rate has dropped to 4.1 percent.
Tight labor market conditions have made it increasingly hard for employers
to find certain types of workers, causing the Fed to become concerned about
the possibility of wage inflation.

Several lawmakers are sponsoring measures to make it easier for U.S.
farmers, meat processors and others in the agriculture industry to import
laborers from Mexico and other countries.

There has been growing concern from many in U.S. agricultural businesses
that the combination of a tight labor market and recent crackdowns on
illegal workers at meatpacking plants may make it almost impossible to find
menial workers for tasks such as cutting up chickens.

At the other end of the economic spectrum, the explosion of the software,
Internet and technology industries has created an insatiable appetite for
qualified software engineers.