Immigration reform bill would add 13,992 jobs per congressional district

594,000 net new U.S. jobs by 2018. Gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to increase by $10.32 billion in 2014 and $49.93 billion in 2018 (all dollar figures presented in report are 2012 real dollars). Employment and gross state product increase for all states and the District of Columbia.

  • It estimates that as a result of the H-1B program expansion, employment will increase by 227,000 jobs in 2014, and will continue to expand, with a net increase of 1.3 million jobs by 2045. Gross domestic product will increase by $22 billion in 2014 and more than $158 billion by 2045. Employment and gross state product are estimated to increase for all states and in all years from 2014 to 2045 as a result of the H-1B program expansion.
  • The increase in H-2A visas results in total employment increases of almost 17,000 jobs in 2014, 51,000 jobs in 2017, and moderating slightly to a 39,600 job increase by 2045.
  • Fully utilizing the H-2B visas up to the cap will increase total U.S. employment by 25,000 in 2014, and cause employment to remain steady at about 24,000-25,000 over the baseline forecast to 2045.
  • It estimates that as a result of the W-1 Visa program, there will be a net increase in U.S. jobs of more than 40,000 in 2014, and a total gain of 365,000 jobs by 2045. Gross domestic product is expected to increase by $2.67 billion in 2014 and to rise by $31 billion over the baseline by 2045.

    • “The impact of these components of immigration reform is net positive on the state and national economies and the labor force,” the study report says.

    ABC News notes that the figures in the REMI study could offer more cover for GOP House members who may be leaning toward backing immigration reform, as it would allow them to explain their support for the bill to skeptical constituents as they talk with voters during August recess visits to their home districts.

    Republican opponents of immigration reform, aware of the appeal of the job-creation argument, contend that immigration reform would not be a job-creation engine. For example, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama), the leading critic of the Senate bill, criticized the original REMI report, saying that there is a finite number of jobs, and that these jobs would go to newly arrived work-visa immigrants rather than Americans.

    “We don’t have a shortage of workers — we have a shortage of jobs,” he said.

    Also, some supporters of the Senate bill rely on analyses which, while suggesting that the bill would create many jobs, say it would create fewer jobs than the REMI study and AAN analysis suggest. Thus, in a letter to Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida), one of the authors of the Senate bill, the Office of the Chief Social Security Actuary says that his agency estimates the number of jobs to be created by the Senate bill to be around three million by 2024.

    — Read more in Key Components of Immigration Reform: An Analysis of the Economic Effects of Creating a Pathway to Legal Status, Expanding High-Skilled Visas, & Reforming Lesser-Skilled Visas (Regional Economic Models, Inc. [REMI], 17 July 2013); and Conservative Criticism of the Heritage Foundation’s 2013 Immigration Study (American Action Network, 8 May 2013)