Want a Better Wall? Expect Higher Housing Prices: 570,000 Mexican Construction Workers Leave U.S.

Several industries are unusually dependent on Mexican workers. Home construction is one. A Wall Street Journal article reports Commerce Department data showing that the number of Mexican construction workers in the U.S. has fallen from a peak of 1.89 million in 2007 to 1.32 million in 2014. Quoting the WSJ article: “many of those workers who went back to Mexico during the downturn haven’t returned to work in the U.S. due to tighter immigration controls—both for those entering legally and those not—and comparable job opportunities in some Mexican states with improving economies…. That doesn’t bode well for a home-building industry that increasingly has cited labor shortages among the factors deterring greater production of late.” Continuing: “a less hospitable environment in the U.S. in recent years for Mexican migration, legal or illegal…. Their report notes Commerce Department figures showing a 67% decline in immigration to the U.S. from Mexico from 2006 to 2013. What’s not in the report? The fact that Americans are not picking up the slack.  Read more here.