Utah Jobs Plan

(Salt Lake City, Utah) It's not clear how this jobs plan will affect the high U.S. unemployment rate. Granted, a few government clerks may be needed to process visas.

Utah businessmen are preparing to hire potentially thousands of Mexican temporary workers.

Representatives of several chambers of commerce and business groups met last week in Utah with local public officials and representatives of the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon to learn about a new state law, HB466, and about the procedure for processing H2B visas.

The entry into force of HB466 would allow businessmen to hire up to 16,000 temporary workers from Nuevo Leon, the state with which the Utah government signed an agreement to establish a pilot program.

Although the federal government still must give its final approval to the initiative because the preestablished number of 66,000 H2B visas has already been exceeded for this year, businessmen from Salt Lake City, Provo and other cities attended seminars to learn how to process those visas. [emphasis added]

Unfortunately, not explained is why temporary workers can't be recruited from high unemployment states like Michigan, Illinois and others. Given the state of the economy, filling available job openings with Americans should arguably take precedence over importing Mexican workers.

Companion post at A Western Heart.