Prior to the pandemic, non-farm payrolls were expected to grow by about 1.70% a year. Due to the pandemic, worker growth from 2019 through 2023 is now expected to grow by 0.85% a year. This amounts to a shortfall from the prior trend of 1.25 million workers a year. Hence today’s worker shortage.
Immigration used to deliver about 500,000 new workers a year. Trump wanted, in effect, to reduce that to 300,000. Biden would increase it to 700,000.