Emerson Electric CEO David Farr says that in the age of President Trump’s economic nationalism, he expects American wages to continue rising “for the next couple of years” as the labor market tightens under strict immigration enforcement.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Farr explained that Trump’s direction of economic nationalism — primarily through increased interior immigration enforcement and new tariffs to protect U.S. industries — is likely to keep American workers’ wages growing for at least two years:

DAVID FARR: The wage impact started last summer. It actually started ahead of time because what we started seeing as the optimism in the manufacturing world, the jobs started expanding, and so we have. … We’ve gone up a notch in wages and I expect that to happen for the next couple of years (emphasis added). From the standpoint of finding people, you can find the people, but you obviously have to pay them more money. Right now, across manufacturing is probably about 350,000 jobs needed, and so that’s a big issue for all of us. But you’re going to have to pay more money. So it’s a good sign (emphasis added). HOST: What types of manufacturing jobs are seeing the biggest wage increases? DAVID FARR: What we’re seeing right now, across all wages, so just general wages are having to go up to make sure we can get people in the factory, but the higher skill level workers. And that’s the big issue right now: the people that have a technical capability to work in the factories. One of the things we’re doing right now is we’re having to automate the factories more, so we need more technical, skill base (emphasis added).

Farr’s comments reveal a glimpse into the views of manufacturing executives, admitting that wages will continue rising for American workers and that the so-called “labor shortage” touted by the big business lobby and establishment media is actually a net positive for U.S. wage-earners who will reap the benefits of a tightened labor market.

The historic wage increases can be sustained for multinational companies like Emerson Electronics, and Farr stated that there is “real, underlying growth” at the company.

“We’re in a good zone,” Farr said, noting that the companies’ profits are growing at a pace that can support recent increases in workers’ wages.

Despite American workers finally seeing growth in their wages after decades of stagnant pay, Farr said that while he supports a merit-based immigration system, he also believes the wage-crushing Washington, DC, economic model of importing more than one million mostly low-skilled foreign nationals every year should be maintained and eventually even increased.

HOST: If we do, in the U.S., curb immigration at all, do you expect a shortage of workers that will be really problematic? FARR: I think, as we keep telling the people in Washington, they have to focus on the right balance of immigration, the type of immigration we need. If we actually reduce the numbers, that will be a big issue for the U.S. I think we need a workforce that’s growing, and, therefore, we’re going to have to have the right type of immigration. We’re going to need certain skill-sets in immigration. And we’re going to need that immigration level to continue to climb, and then, we’re going to have to train them. And I think this is a big balance. That’s the dilemma we have right now because we know if you look out probably five, eight, ten years, we have probably [a] two to three million-people shortage in manufacturing (emphasis added).

The big business-preferred cheap labor economic model of importing more than one million new legal immigrants every year to compete mostly for working and middle class jobs against Americans has resulted in decades of stagnant and even decreased wages for U.S. workers:

For instance, the massive importation of low-skilled foreign nationals to the U.S. has translated to a cheap-labor economy that has aided in keeping American men’s wages stagnant for at least 44 years, as Breitbart News reported. Median earnings for American men working full-time were actually lower in 2016 than they were in 2007.

Meanwhile, the economic nationalist model has already resulted in history-making wage growth for American workers in the construction industry, the garment industry, for workers employed at small businesses, and black Americans:

Tight labor markets = higher wages for working-class Americans. A key reason to get immigration levels under control. https://t.co/SJW0p8LQxD — Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) February 1, 2018

As Breitbart News reported, reducing overall immigration levels to raise the wages and quality of life for America’s working and middle class is more important to Republicans, conservatives, and Trump voters than destroying the Islamic State (ISIS), tax reform, repealing and replacing Obamacare, and even new infrastructure.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.