The most important trend in retail employment right now and going forward is the shift in focus from quantity to quality. Total industry employment is shrinking because of cost-cutting, consolidation, technology advances and the rise of Internet shopping. Those lower on the pay scale are the most affected. But industry employment is growing in higher-skilled occupations, including and especially those involved in the technical, logistical and managerial skills required to turn retailers into efficient, integrated, multichannel, merchandising and selling operations.

Retailers will increasingly have to scramble to find qualified employees who meet their needs, and then make competitive offers to get the people they want. With immigration reform or without it, the labor force growth rate will be slowing considerably in years to come.

My prescription: find, hire, train and grow your own talent. Create knowledgeable, motivated and satisfied employees to create satisfied and loyal customers. Then watch your business grow.

I have not found Mom ‘n Pop businesses to be any more likely to violate labor laws than large chains and companies. The most recent raid in Massachusetts was at a clothing company that contracted with the military, over 300 illegals were taken into custody.

In fact, in every small town I’ve lived in, Mom ‘n Pops are most likely to employ citizens, because they know we’re all in this together.

Guest Worker is a disastrous idea. One only need look at the Mariana Islands for proof of that. Global Horizons, a company that trades in Asian labor, has already run into legal problems in Washington and has been banned from Israel. This is nothing more than legalized slavery.

40% of Americans make less than $11.00 [per hour]. The WSJ just reported that the median income for a 30 year old man is less than that of a 30 year old man in 1974. The poor are getting poorer than ever.

Costco has the solution, like it or not. In order for wages to go up, stockholder shares have to go down. The rich cannot continue their war on the poor, whether those working poor are here, in China or India, or coming over the border from Mexico. When we demand improved wages in our trade agreements, then the economies in third world countries will improve, and their workers won’t need to come here anymore. It’s just the biggest DUH ever, except for the one percenters who think they’ve inherited the entire planet and every drop of oil and stick of timber on it.

This is not a uniquely American dilemma. In the UK, and most of Europe, I believe, illegal immigrants are desperately seeking work and primarily taking jobs that are otherwise unfilled albeit being taken advantage of and paid barely liveable wages. Working conditions are also very poor and gangmasters rife not to mention difficult to control. I think much of the fear people feel about illegal immigrants and allegedly insecure borders is something of a red herring. Many potential terrorists are native born to whichever country they may be considering attacking. It makes far more sense to me to find a way of filling jobs, fairly, with people eager to do them rather than to penalise people who want to work for the sake of the relatively few who are intent on doing harm.

The food industry in many countries relies on seasonal and unskilled or semi-skilled labour and for those millions of consumers demanding (or so we’re told) that prices be kept below rock bottom, the only way to supply that demand is to allow people who are willing to work for below rock bottom wages to do the jobs. It would be better all around to find a way of accommodating all requirements than to simply say no, we do not allow immigrants across our borders unless they follow the restrictions we choose to impose.

You have all raised what I consider excellent points. One thing I have learned is that an issue like this involves many factors and dynamics, many of which are unseen or whose precise relationship to each other is unquantified. This is a question best answered by applying systems modeling, in my view.

But let me raise an underlying factor: I assume you are correct, those who have suggested that the jobs in question are not necessarily awful jobs, they just pay poorly. It reminds me of our data showing that the average retail organization wastes four dollars out of five that it spends on operations. Keep in mind that world-class retail efficiency still wastes two out of three dollars. Still, this is mind boggling. This is based on data, not conjecture. It means that if the average retail business improved their efficiency by merely 10%, they could increase the pay of every clerk by more than $2 an hour. Our test have shown this reduces turnover by an average of 20%, which would increase the average retail’s net income by 5%, including the pay raise.

As some have said, let’s separate the idea of “illegal immigrants” from “legal non-citizens.” Guest worker programs and illegals are two different things, and yet they are treated as the same in the way the question was posed. We jump from an article about guest worker programs to a question about illegals. They are not the same. Working out systems to tap into foreign worker talent and to do so in a manner where the documentation and taxation is appropriate is quite a different manner than hiring workers that have no documentation and are being paid excessively low wages under the table.

It’s no secret that there are many industries that rely on the illegal immigrant population. That is a fact that needs attention and perhaps more guest worker programs as in the days of “braceros” and other such programs could move things in a more positive direction.

In a perfect world, anybody could work anywhere anytime they wanted to but this isn’t a perfect world. To let illegal aliens take jobs “nobody else wants” and then send most of their money back to their homeland does our country a huge disservice. By the way, the damage this creates to our LEGAL immigrant system is tremendous and is a slap in the face to all naturalized American citizens. Plus, we already have a worker program, it’s called Green Cards.

Just an opinion but the people who need most of these jobs, which some of us might trivialize, are youngsters. It’s a bottom rung on the economic ladder that provides them an opportunity to move up.

I agree to a point that if illegal aliens weren’t allowed to work, the economic cost would increase – THAT’S HOW FREE MARKET’S WORK! In a working democracy, we have laws that must be enforced.

While seldom in agreement with President Bush, I find his proposal the only viable one dealing with this complicated problem.

My store does business with newly arrived immigrants who may not have burdened our overworked immigration officials with their presence here. That said, so-called “terrorist” arguments hold little weight. A committed terrorist will arrive on these shores with a legal status, as did those at the root of our national day of tragedy.

President Bush’s call for a civil debate is welcome, coming from a generally partisan administration.

This is not a political problem in as much as who we wish to become as a nation. I would favor a system where you have U.S. citizens and U.S. subjects; allow the immigrants the opportunity to work legally as U.S. “subjects” who can work toward citizenship by adopting our language and knowledge of history. Those who engage in felonious activities would be repatriated.

We must take into account that 99% of these folks are looking for the same opportunities and freedom our immigrant ancestors sought.

I salute President Bush on looking for bi-partisan solution and would hope it would spread to other areas of governance.