More Bad Signs for the Rest of the World
October 16, 2008 – 3:07 pm by BHThe Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta just put out its third quarter issue of EconSouth, a popular magazine covering events in its district. The latest issue asks some questions about remittances:
After years of rapid growth, remittances have leveled off amid an economic slowdown in the United States. How are changing migration patterns, economic developments, and new technologies and policies affecting this important payment method?
Part of the reason the growth rate of remittances is slowing is because of the slowdown in the housing markets in the United States:
Some of this decline in the number of remitting immigrants is likely tied to the current weakness in the housing market, which has slowed employment in the construction industry (see chart 3). A 2008 MIF survey found that approximately 14 percent of Latin American and Caribbean immigrants who come to the United States work in construction. When the construction market declines, undocumented workers are often the first to lose their jobs because they are typically just day laborers rather than company employees. Florida and Georgia, which were hit especially hard by the housing slump that began in 2006, also had some of the largest declines in the number of remitting immigrants.
Read the rest and check out the rest of the magazine, which includes a good article on the housing market in Atlanta’s district, which includes “frothy” markets like Florida.
