Trump Administration Pushes to Extend Coronavirus Immigration Limits

The Trump administration just received some proposals of restricting and temporarily decreasing issuances of certain work-based visas categories, including H-1B, H-2B, and student work visas. According to the article, the upcoming changes in immigration policies will be built on the late April Executive Order, which is to temporarily ban new immigration for 60 days (there are some exceptions to this order). Furthermore, there are already discussions within the White House about imposing stricter rules in Southern Border, which primarily targets Latinos immigrants.

In my opinion, the Trump administration is using the tactic that they have been going after for years since the 2016 election: to tighten the immigration system in the US. If this is a case, the economy will be hurt significantly since a big amount of the workforce in the US depends heavily on immigrants. Additionally, some firms will find it hard to maintain their operations, which means they do not have enough resources to provide their customers with the optimum products and services.

Immigrants significantly contribute to the overall economy, especially filling up "holes" in the chain from executive to labor-based positions.



Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-pushes-to-extend-coronavirus-immigration-limits-11588935603?mod=hp_lead_pos4

April Unemployment Rate Rose to a Record 14.7%

The unemployment rate keeps increasing in throughout April, further spreading the fear and concerns about the coronavirus's economic impact. Compared to the Great Depression, the unemployment rate right now is still below (14.7% as of today compared to 25% during the Great Depression). However, there are some distinct differences between the two numbers. According to the report, most of the layoffs in April came from blue-collar jobs such as farming and meat processing. Furthermore, these are all temporary, meaning the employees might come back normally to work after the pandemic ends (or after we successfully find the vaccines). The white-collar jobs are still there.

On the other hand, general merchandise stores, including warehouses and supercenters, enjoys the increasing demands and so as the increasing employment. The employment increases by 4.7% in April from a month earlier. We can see that manufacturers are using the "push" strategy by increasing the stock supplies to warehouses and retailers. This is an example of using the 4Ps in marketing, particularly promotion.

Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/april-jobs-report-coronavirus-2020-11588888089?mod=hp_lead_pos1