Domino's Pizza CEO says U.S. needs more immigration to address nationwide worker shortages

[Amishman]

16. I think we need to be very careful with it

Why?

We need a fairly tight labor market for an extended period to allow workers wages to catch up to the growth denied over the past 20+ years. Wages are close to a record low as it's share of GDP, corporate profits close to a record high.

The other big reason is what is to come. I work in software development, and have done a lot of work in process automation. There are tons of back office clerical jobs that are going to be eliminated in the next decade just from the types of systems I implement.

Automation is coming in other areas. Kiosk / app ordering in food service, automated warehouses, drone delivery of orders, self driving trucking, store inventory and shelf stocking robots, fruit / vegetable picking robots. All these things are at the prototype stage or even further.

As wages catch up, businesses will accelerate automation plans. It's happening already.

The current labor market rightness won't persist long term, low skill and/or repetitive jobs will be eliminated. Which might be a good thing long term, stacking cans in a supermarket is not a job that provides any fulfillment for the person doing it.

We need to be very careful to balance present needs with future pressures.

Plus let's face it, there are a lot more people who want to come here than we can take in.