California Seeks Immigration Reform to Spur Economic Growth

Leaders in business and government say that caps on visas are chasing away workers who are essential to the economic development of California—and the nation.
By Brian Donahue

California is facing a significant shortage of skilled professionals, a problem that many believe will limit the state’s economic growth in the coming decades. Researchers and leaders in the public and private sectors say the demand for knowledge-based employees already exceeds the supply, and that this gap will only widen over time.

The state’s workforce has long had an increasingly high percentage of skilled employees in the areas of math, science, and engineering. California ranks 12th in the nation in the percentage of adults who are college graduates, according to the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), a private, nonprofit research organization. Its businesses have also relied heavily on foreign-born professionals. With these workers, Silicon Valley companies have become global leaders, and California has built a thriving knowledge-based economy that helps to fuel the nation’s overall economic growth.

But a shortage of highly skilled workers poses a problem for the state, as it does for other parts of the nation. According to PPIC’s report, “California 2025: Taking on the Future,” 33% of California’s working-age adults will have a college degree in 2020, but 39% of jobs in the state will need college graduates.

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