Yet wages ought to rise when the supply of workers falls.
I looked at the increase in supply of workers in Texas.
Alone, an influx of immigrants raises the supply of workers and hence reduces wages.
Across the rich world the supply of workers is about to slow as the number of pensioners rises.
Its two big determinants, the supply of workers and the rise in their productivity, have both fallen short.
But this cannot continue indefinitely: over time, population growth is the best gauge of the trend supply of workers.
Moreover, higher wages may increase the supply of workers by drawing older people back into the job market.
"China has had a very unusual situation for a number of years with just this incredible supply of workers," Mr. Kroeber said.
At the same time, the concentration of an immigrant population contains a ready supply of workers with the skills to produce those dishes.
Adding to that concern is a dwindling supply of workers as the unemployment rate hovers close to a 30-year low.
But firestorms of protest have greeted nearly every proposal to regularize and temporarily legalize the supply of workers, like the immigrants who harvested Mr. Eckel's crops.
