The number of workers born outside the US is at an all-time high

The number of non-US-born workers accounted for 18.1% of the US workforce last year, the highest number in nearly 30 years, according to a press release from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That percentage is “up from 17.4% a year earlier and the highest in 1996 data,” with a total of 29.8 million immigrants employed or actively looking for work last year, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The press release detailed highlights of the 2022 dates, including:

The unemployment rate for foreign-born workers fell by 2.2% year-on-year. The unemployment rate for native-born workers fell by 1.6%. Foreign-born men are more involved in the labor force than native-born men, while native-born women are more strongly represented than foreign-born women.

Abraham Mosisa, a senior economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, told Axios, “The labor force participation rate of native-born men in the US has steadily declined.”

He said the pandemic has prompted a decline in the steady trend of admitting foreign-born people into the workforce, making the increase “look a little more striking than it is”.

The Wall Street Journal said the slowdown in U.S. population growth and the increase in people retiring from the workforce during the pandemic are leading to labor shortages and increased job opportunities.

The number of native-born workers in the labor force rose about 1% in 2022, from 133.2 million to 134.5 million, Axios reported.

From 16 years

The New York Post reported that the number of foreign- and native-born workers ages 16 and older was 164 million in 2022.

“The report concluded that immigrants over the age of 16 are more likely to participate in the labor market than their US-born counterparts,” the article states, with 65.9% of foreign-born workers more likely to be employed in the US or there looking for work labor market than native-born workers.

Axios quoted the Migration Policy Institute as saying a key factor behind the record number is that 77% of immigrants are of working age, between 18 and 64 years old.

“However, native-born workers held more positions in managerial, technical and related occupations,” the post said.

According to the report, “In 2022, Hispanics continued to make up nearly half of the foreign-born workforce, while Asians made up a quarter.”

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