***NEWS RELEASE***
A Sustainable, Growing Economy Needs an Adequate Workforce
Syndicated Host Dan Celia: Everything May Be Lining Up in the Economy, But None of It Will Matter Without an Educated and Willing Workforce
PHILADELPHIA—A strong economy. Up-and-down markets. Government spending. Talk of rising interest rates.
It’s enough to make a casual investor’s head spin. But nationally syndicated host and biblical investing authority Dan Celia says there’s an important factor to watch in this flourishing economy—labor participation.
“The economy’s fundamentals are strong, but there’s something that could derail it—a labor shortage,” Celia said. “By all accounts, it looks as though we are poised and ready for a thriving economic environment. The problem is, it won’t be sustainable if we don’t have enough workers. The economy won’t come to a screeching halt because of normal inflation or normalized higher interest rates, but because of a lack of workers. Without an adequate workforce, there will be no sustainable, growing economy.”
Celia has plenty on his wish list for policies coming out of Washington, but a priority must be legislation to make changes in the legal immigration process, especially streamlining the process. Extreme vetting is necessary, he said, but without all the bureaucracy that typically accompanies it.
“We need to have people who are coming to America because they want to assimilate into the American culture, and who want to pursue the opportunity for prosperity for their families and future generations,” Celia wrote in a new commentary for Townhall.com, where he is a featured columnist. “There are more than enough workers out there willing to do that, but between bureaucratic costs and regulatory burdens, it will be very difficult to keep pace with the demand for workers in a thriving economy.”
Celia added that this administration believes, as he does, that the economy is poised to grow and ready to be strong and sustainable. If so, before lawmakers take another step on any kind of stimulus programs like infrastructure and lessening regulatory burdens, they should consider reforming the immigration process.
“And the rest of us better stop thinking about growth and begin to understand that without enough hard-working Americans on hand, there won’t be any sustainable growth,” he said. “We can have everything perfectly in place in our economy, including lower taxes, more incentives for corporations to grow, fewer regulatory burdens, and a small business environment that is much friendlier and more inviting. We can have higher wages, better medical care and companies willing to share their profits. But all of that is for nothing if we don’t have an educated and willing workforce to participate in America’s greatness.”
Celia leads Financial Issues Stewardship Ministries (FISM, www.financialissues.org). His program, “Financial Issues,” airs from 9 a.m. to noon EST Monday through Friday on about 640 radio stations and several television networks, including NRBTV. Watch live here.
Read more about Celia, FISM and “Financial Issues” here or visit the FISM web site, its Facebook page, on YouTube at Financial Issues with Dan Celia or on Twitter @financialissues; download the FISM app here.
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