Not making this up. Compared to 2019, all employment growth has gone to the foreign-born. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, an independent, non-partisan, non-profit research organization founded in 1985. It is the nation’s only think tank devoted exclusively to research and policy analysis of the economic, social, demographic, fiscal, and other impacts of immigration on the United States.
Where do they get their numbers? US Beauru of Labor statistics. Below is what they found.
- While the numbers have continually rebounded from the lows of 2020, there were still 183,000 fewer U.S.-born Americans working in the fourth quarter of 2023 than in the fourth quarter of 2019, before Covid. The number of immigrants (legal and illegal) working is up 2.9 million over 2019. (Figure 4 and Table 2)
- The unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2023 was 3.5 percent and 3.7 percent for the U.S.-born and immigrants respectively. However, the unemployed do not include those out of the labor force — neither working nor looking for work. (Table 2 and Table 8)
- The overall labor force participation rate of all U.S.-born adults (18 to 64) in the fourth quarter of 2023 of 77 percent roughly matches the pre-covid rate in 2019. But it was still below the prior peaks of 78.1 percent in 2006 and 79.2 percent in 2000. (Figure 1 and Table 3)
- Immigration has added significantly to the number of workers without a bachelor’s degree. Of the 2.9 million increase in immigrant workers, 1.7 million (60 percent) are adults 18 and older without a bachelor’s degree. (Table 2 and Table 6)
- At 75.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023, the labor force participation rate of U.S.-born men without a bachelor’s (18 to 64) has still not returned to the 76.3 percent it was in the fourth quarter of 2019, which was lower than the 80.5 percent in 2006 and the 82.6 percent in 2000. (Figure 7, Tables 8-11)
- Compared to the 1960s, when more than 90 percent of these working-age, less-educated U.S.-born men were in the labor force, the rate today is dramatically lower.
- At 66.4 percent, the labor force participation rate of U.S.-born women (18 to 64) without a bachelor’s in the fourth quarter of 2023 has returned to the 2019 level, but is still well below the 70.7 percent in 2000. (Tables 8, 9, and 11)
- The share of immigrant men (18 to 64) in the fourth quarter of 2023 without a bachelor’s degree in the labor force is 85.5 percent, higher than the rate for U.S.-born men, but still below the 86.4 percent in 2019. (Figure 7, Table 8, and Table 9)
- There were a total of 43.5 million U.S.-born men and women (16 to 64) of all education levels not in the labor force in the fourth quarter of 2023 — 8.6 million more than in 2000. More than two-thirds of the U.S.-born not in the labor force are adults 18 to 64 without a bachelor’s degree. (Table 1 and Table 5)
- The total number of U.S.-born and immigrants of working age (16 to 64), both sexes and all education levels not working — unemployed or not in the labor force — was 59 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. This is an enormous pool of potential workers to draw upon. This figure includes 320,000 unemployed people 65 and older. (Tables 1 and 2)
- In addition to the working-age, the labor force participation of those ages 65 to 74 increased steadily until 2019. But it fell significantly during the pandemic and at 26.5 percent for the U.S.-born and 30.9 percent for immigrants in the fourth quarter of 2023 it has not returned to the pre-Covid 2019 level for either group. (Table 7)
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