David J. Bier
David J. Bier
President-elect Trump is promising to slash both legal and illegal immigration during his second term in office. He also wants to deport millions of immigrants who have entered the country illegally, as well as those who have come legally in recent years (through a lawful process known as parole). In this post, I review the data on what we know about America’s new immigrants.
As of March 2024, the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) records that 7.6 million immigrants who entered since January 2020 were living in the United States (excluding those in “group quarters”). Although it is not possible to exclude the 2020 cohort, this group primarily includes immigrants who entered during the Biden administration. Nearly half of these immigrants, 3.7 million, were already employed by that time, while 4 percent were unemployed. Another 21 percent were children or in high school, and 6 percent were in college. The rest were split between homemakers (8 percent), elderly (4 percent), and other groups (8 percent).
Compared to US-born Americans, immigrants were slightly more likely to be employed and more likely to actively look for a job. They are significantly more likely to be enrolled in college and much more likely to be homemakers while being much less likely to be retired. Remember that for many new immigrants, working in the United States is actually illegal, so it is remarkable that they nonetheless find jobs at such a high rate.
The share of immigrants who find jobs grows over time. By March 2024, 54 percent of immigrants who arrived in 2020 and 2021 were employed, compared to 46 percent of those who arrived between 2022 and March 2024—which was the same as the employment rate for the US-born population. According to the survey, new immigrants accounted for 78 percent of all employment growth from 2019 to 2024. » Read More
https://www.cato.org/blog/bidens-new-immigrants-employment-education-jobs-industries