Bit of a wild model here. The US, broadly speaking, is going through a labor shortage that will only get worse in the future (structural demographics). Immigration was filling the gap for the last half decade or so, but with anti immigration sentiment rising, this will exacerbate the situation. So, some political parties have decided to employ children as young as 14 in potentially dangerous occupations. It's not great, and as it's politics, there aren't any solutions besides "vote better," which the electorate appears to be not so interested in.
Probably an opportunity for a ProPublica series to track the harm and death toll that will eventually result.
Probably an opportunity for a ProPublica series to track the harm and death toll that will eventually result.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/despite-hazardous-working-conditio...
https://www.axios.com/2024/03/13/immigration-economy-jobs-gr...
https://www.axios.com/2023/05/08/us-labor-shortage-older-wor...
https://www.hamiltonproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2...
https://assets-global.website-files.com/5cd5801dfdf7e5927800...