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immigrant employment and unemployment -- figures

The Center for Immigration Studies issued two reports today, August 17, about native and immigrant employment.

Share of jobs held by immigrants:

One report looked at percentage of 465 occupations and what share of workers were immigrants. Overall, immigrants comprise about 13% of the workforce. The jobs with over 50% going to immigrants are plasterers, agricultural product sorters, personal groomers, and tailors, dressmakers and sewers.

The immigrant share of the following jobs are: maids and housekeepers, 45%; taxi drivers, 42%; butchers, 37%; grounds maintenance workers, 35%; and construction laborers, 35%.

As for upscale jobs, the following are the immigrant share: medical scientists, 44%; physical scientists, 37%; computer hardware engineers, 30%; physicians and surgeons, 27%; software programmers, 23%; and registered nurses, 13%.

Unemployment rates:

In June 2009, the official unemployment rate for native-born Americans was 9.7 percent, but the broader U-6 measure was 16.3 percent. The U-6 measure includes people who would like to work but have not looked for a job recently, as well as those working part-time involuntarily. For all immigrants, the unemployment rate was 9.7 percent and the U-6 measure was 19.7 percent.

There are 12.7 million unemployed native-born Americans, but using the U-6 measure the number is 21.7 million. 2.348 million immigrants workers were unemployed; the U-6 measure was 4.828 million.

The unemployment rate for native-born Americans with less than a high school education is 20.8 percent. Their U-6 measure is 33.2 percent. The unemployment rate for immigrants with less than high school education is 12.8 percent. Their U-6 measure is 27.1 percent.

The unemployment rate for young native-born Americans (18-29) who have only a high school education is 18.5 percent. Their U-6 measure is 30.3 percent. The unemployment rate for young immigrants (18-29) with only a high school education is 9.6 percent. Their U-6 measure is 24.2 percent.

The unemployment rate for native workers with college degrees was 4.8 percent; for immigrants with college degrees, 7.1 percent. Their U-6 measures were, respectively, were 8.9 percent and 11.6 percent.

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