New numbers out of the U.S. Labor Department show that nearly 1-in-5 workers in America are foreign-born, a staggering increase from 20 years ago.
- In 2022, 18.1% of the workforce was foreign-born, up from 17.4 percent in 2021. Nearly half of these workers are Hispanic immigrants and a quarter are Asian immigrants.
- The number of immigrant workers jumped to 29.8 million in 2022, up about 6% from 2021 (though this jump was higher than usual due to the end of Covid restrictions).
- Native-born Americans went from 133.2 million workers to 134.5 million workers, a much smaller increase than immigrants.
The Labor Department reported that immigrant men are more active in the workforce than native-born Americans:
Foreign-born men continued to participate in the labor force at a considerably higher rate in 2022 (77.4 percent) than their native-born counterparts (66.0 percent). By contrast, 55.0 percent of foreign-born women were labor force participants, lower than the participation rate of 57.2 percent for native-born women.
According to the Migration Policy Institute, one reason for the disparity among men is that a larger percentage of immigrants are between 18 and 64 years of age, with fewer children and elderly individuals among them.
Axios also notes that immigrants tend to work different jobs than native-born employees and work for less money.
- In 2022, median weekly earnings for foreign-born full-time workers was $945, or 87% of their native-born counterparts.
Americans have had a declining birth rate for decades, leading to a larger number of native-born citizens retiring from the workforce than entering it. This has created a demand for more workers to fill critical infrastructure roles. Those who advocate for increased immigration, such as demographer Phillip Connor with FWD.US, say it isn't possible to maintain a growing workforce today without immigration.
