Includes legal and illegal foreign workers.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: The number of foreign-born individuals who have jobs in the United States increased by 279,000 to 25,098,000, in May, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Just as foreign-born workers increased over the month, the statistics for native-born workers did as well, according to SNS News. There were 124,251,000 native-born workers employed in May, which was up 482,000 from the 123,769,000, employed in April.
The BLS does not distinguish between legal immigrants to the United States, who are lawfully permitted to work, and illegal aliens, who are not.
“The foreign-born are persons who reside in the United States but who were born outside the country or one of its outlying areas to parents who were not U.S. citizens,” according to the BLS. “The foreign born include legally-admitted immigrants, refugees, temporary residents such as students and temporary workers, and undocumented immigrants. The survey does not separately identify the numbers of persons in these categories.”
In 2014, the unemployment rate for foreign-born people was 5.6 percent, compared to 6.3 percent for native-born Americans. Both groups experienced declines in unemployment from the year prior when foreign-born unemployment was 6.9 percent and native-born was 7.5 percent, according to data compiled as part of the Current Population Survey.
The foreign-born percentage of the labor force is also growing. In 2014 foreign-born workers made up 16.5 percent of the civilian labor force in the U.S. In the year 2000, the foreign-born population made up 13.3 percent.
In addition to boasting a lower unemployment rate and an increasing share of the labor force, the foreign born population also beat out their native-born counterparts in labor-force participation.
In 2014, the foreign-born labor force participation rate was 66.0 percent compared to the 62.3 percent for the native-born.