Immigration to the United States — both legal and illegal — has soared over the past few years, and the influx of newcomers is altering the state of the national labor market.
Since late 2019, there has been a divergence between U.S.- and foreign-born employment levels, with the gap widening over the past year.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of employed foreign-born workers increased by 1.24 million from August 2023 to August 2024. By comparison, the number of employed U.S.-born workers fell by 1.32 million in the same time span.
When broken down by gender, American men have been casualties of the downward employment trend in native-born workers in recent years.
In the 12 months ending in August, the number of U.S.-born male workers fell by 1.15 million. The labor force participation rate also eased to 65.6 percent from 66.2 percent a year ago.
American women lost 165,000 jobs. While the participation rate increased by 0.1 percent to 57.9 percent, it has yet to recover to the prepandemic level of 58.3 percent.
Conversely, foreign male workers gained 695,000 positions, with the labor force participation rate edging up 0.1 percent to 78.7 percent. Foreign-born women obtained 546,000 jobs, bolstering their participation rate from 56.7 percent to 57.2 percent.
