Thread: CA: 40,000 unskilled workers 0.2 percent of the workforce

California's 40,000 unskilled workers make up 0.2 percent of the total state workforce

By Steve Geissinger
MEDIANEWS STAFF
Contra Costa Times

Article Launched:07/26/2007 03:03:11 AM PDT

SACRAMENTO -- Every morning in the Bay Area, people informally hire jobless Latinos for temporary work at the same busy intersections -- prompting complaints about everything from traffic jams to chaotic displays of an unregulated, illegal underground economy.
But public day-labor markets, which have triggered a mishmash of partial solutions, aren't nearly the problem to the economy some believe and don't have to be so controversial in cities or unsafe for workers, says a study released Wednesday by California's Public Policy Institute.

California has about 40,000 unskilled day laborers, making up 3 percent of the state's undocumented workforce and 0.2 percent of the total workforce.

The researchers found the average day laborer is an undocumented Mexican male in his early 30s, with seven years of schooling, who has been living in the United States for fewer than 10 years.

Their average hourly wage is $11, and they usually work enough to make $260 weekly.

Both the workers and their employers operate on a cash basis outside taxation and worker safety rules. Loopholes in labor and immigration laws prevent crackdowns on employers.

The San Francisco-based nonpartisan think tank says more help from government and community-based organizations could greatly ease the spectacle of men rushing employers' vehicles to negotiate for work.

Some cities have passed restrictive ordinances banning the day labor markets only to have courts strike them down as unconstitutional; others have set up alternative work centers with limited success.

Both strategies are sound, according to institute researcher Arturo Gonzalez. They just need to be combined and done right.

"It's unlikely any one policy response will completely resolve conflicts between day labor markets and the communities that host them,'' Gonzalez said.

Concord's day labor center, Monument Futures, counts itself among the more successful in the state, manager George Vallejo said Wednesday. Part of that is because the Concord site is open six days a week instead of five, he said. The center is prominently placed on Monument Boulevard where there is a large immigrant population.

On any given weekday, 65 men and women show up at the center looking for work, and by noon, 26 to 31 are placed with daylong jobs. Being open Saturdays when 40 of 55 laborers may find work, boosts the average. Statewide, the daily employment rate is less than half of those who show up, at 45 percent.

Work seems to be steady in Concord, though it has slowed since last year, when the housing market was stronger. "We are undoubtedly attached to that housing market," Vallejo said. "Last year, people were selling houses like crazy, so they needed painters and landscapers. This year, we're seeing less of that."

Day labor workers at Concord's Monument Futures casual labor center say they make $3 to $4 more per hour than those surveyed in a statewide study released this week -- $15 hourly compared with the average $11 per hour.

Victor Perez, 39, comes to the Concord center four or five days a week. He said he doesn't like hanging out on intersections hoping for an employer to appear. It's too frenzied, he said, whereas the center offers an orderly sign-in system.

"In the streets, so many people are there, and everyone's competing," Perez said. "Here, if you get here first, you are probably going to get something."

He has been here for six years and lives in an apartment on Detroit Avenue with several roommates.

"I'm staying here," he said, even though he has children by his first wife in Mexico. "I like it too much."

The report, centered largely on the Bay Area, included Concord's program, Oakland's Bay Area Day Labor Program and San Jose's Kelley Park Community Resource Center.

Day laborers are drawn to the informal sites because they get more jobs in construction and other sectors than at formal work centers, according to the report. But jobs stemming from work centers may be safer.

The report acknowledges that groups fighting illegal immigration, such as the Minuteman Project and saveourstate.org, oppose day labor markets altogether.

A coalition of such organizations has put together a Web site, wehirealiens.org, to expose employers of day laborers.

"The biggest incentive for illegal aliens to come to the United States is to find work. If there are no employers willing to hire the illegal aliens, then the flood of illegal aliens subside," says a statement by the group.

Times staff writer Tanya Rose contributed to this story. Reach Steve Geissinger at sgeissinger@angnewspapers.com or 916-447-9302.


http://www.contracostatimes.com/bayandstate/ci_6468232

So why aren't the farmers snatching these workers if they are so desperate ?