The historic labor shortage is propping up inflation as desperate employers raise wages to attract scarce workers, then boost prices to compensate for higher cost. New York Magazine's Eric Levitz quote, the US is choosing child labor over more immigration. The piece repeatedly repeats this labor shortage framing. But then they still take at face value the fact that there's a labor shortage.
In this public News Brief, we detail how uncritical acceptance by centrist––and even liberal––media that the US is seeing an unprecedented "labor shortage" is helping justify repealing child labor protections in roughly a dozen states.