Many Hands, Few Jobs: Population, Unemployment and Emigration in Mexico and the Caribbean. Center for Immigration Studies Paper 2.

Between 1940 and 1980, Mexico and other Caribbean nations grew by an annual average of three percent, doubling in population every 21 years. Mexico's population will reach 109 million and the Caribbean nations will top 250 million by 2000. The projected U.S. population in 2000 is 266 million. This dynamic growth has serious implications for Mexico and the Caribbean states' stability, economic health, employment, urban quality of life, emigration, and for increased U.S. immigration, which since the 1960s has grown to 160,000 annually. For the next three decades, job seekers in Mexico and other Caribbean countries will crowd into the labor market faster than the region's developing economics can absorb them. There is a need for these countries to create together over two million new jobs each year, if they are to reduce unemployment and underemployment to the levels of most Western countries by 2000. Tables and figures are included. (JHP)