and coordinator of the child labor coalition. reed, thank you so much for being with us. why do you think there s been a significant increase in illegal child hirings in recent years? well, employers are citing a labor shortage, but we don t think they should be balk that shortage on the back of teen workers. we think they should be raising wages. we think that comprehensive immigration reform could supply adequate workers for these jobs that most americans don t want to take. and in some cases we have seen deaths, right? yeah, we ve lost three 16-year-olds this summer, one in a saul mill in wisconsin, one in a landfill in missouri, and one in a poultry plant in mississippi. really horrific, tragic deaths. involving heavy machinery, obviously serious consequences when you re talking about those kinds of accidents here. by june of 2023, you had several
New economic data shows more Utah teenagers make up more of the workforce than any state in the nation and are more likely to join the workforce than any state but Wisconsin.