America’s Job Gains Reaped Largely By Immigrants, Analysis Finds

The number of immigrants working in the United States increased over the past four years while the number of working U.S.-born citizens declined, according to an analysis by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).

There were 2.7 million more workers in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, according to the analysis. Most of the job growth went to immigrants, both legal and illegal, with 2.9 million more employed compared to the 183,000 fewer U.S.-born workers.

There were 59 million working age people, 16 to 64, from both groups that are “unemployed or not in the labor force” as of the fourth quarter of 2023, the analysis shows. The data also included 320,000 people 65 and older.

“The long-term decline in the labor force participation rate of less-educated men is linked to serious social problems, from suicide and crime to drug overdoses and social isolation,” CIS wrote in the analysis.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recorded the highest month of migrant encounters in December with 302,034 recorded at the southern border. There were more than 2.2 migrant encounters at the southern border in fiscal year 2022 and more than 2 million in fiscal year 2023.

The Senate announced a bipartisan bill on Feb. 4 that included aid to Ukraine and Israel along with border security provisions, however it was blocked on Feb. 7.

The bill to tighten border security included the FEND OFF Fentanyl Act, which emphasized the need to hold transnational criminal organizations accountable as purveyors of fentanyl into the United States.