Friday, October 29, 2010
Immigrants Gaining Jobs, Native-born Americans Aren't
According to a Pew Hispanic Center report, legal and illegal immigrants had a net gain of 656,000 jobs while native-born Americans lost 1.2 million since the recession’s end in June 2009. As a result, the unemployment rate for immigrant workers fell during this period from 9.3% to 8.7% while for native-born workers it rose from 9.2% to 9.7%. From mid-2009 to mid-2010, median weekly earnings of foreign-born workers fell 4.5% compared to a decline of less than 1% for native-born workers. The article suggests that immigrants appear to be more avid in pursuit of jobs where native-born Americans have been dropping out of the labor force while immigrants have been entering the labor force more than they have been leaving it. It might be that immigrants were more accepting of lower wages and reduced hours because many, especially those who are unauthorized immigrants, are not eligible for unemployment benefits.
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This honestly makes a lot of sense - immigrants are willing to accept lower wages, and they are also willing to work jobs that most Americans, even unemployed Americans, are unwilling to fill. This is why the claim that "immigrants are taking our jobs" has time and time again proven to be fallacious.
ReplyDeleteWhat's more, unauthorized immigrants accept the wages under the lowest wage line. And many employers prefer to hire them than Americans, because they can pay wages much less.
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