Job Gains Are Going to Immigrants, and Keeping Young U.S.-Born Men Out of the Workforce
We keep hearing that the US economy is strong, especially the job market.
At first glance, this perspective seems to be spot-on. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, right before COVID-19 hit, the fourth quarter of 2023 shows 2.7 million more people working.
Except all those gains are among immigrants.
The number of immigrants working over this period is up by 2.9 million, while 183,000 fewer US-born Americans are working.
Put simply, compared to 2019, all the net job growth has gone to immigrants.
To be clear, employment for both groups has rebounded significantly since the depths of the COVID-19 recession in 2020. But the number of US-born workers has not returned to the level it was before the pandemic, while immigrant employment (legal and illegal together) has ballooned.
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[Read the rest at the New York Post]
