Native-born American workers are taking a beating in the job market from gains by foreign-born workers, according to the data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Friday.
The number of foreign-born workers employed in the U.S. rose by 637,000 in the last year to nearly 30.9 million, while the number of employed native-born Americans has declined by 299,000, according to the BLS. As a consequence of foreign-born workers taking up job gains, the number of American-born workers with jobs is still below the number counted in July 2019.
Illegal immigration has surged under President Joe Biden following the administration’s relaxation of enforcement at the southern border, which has recently prompted the president to scramble to stem the flow by signing an executive order that he claims will limit the number of asylum seekers allowed in the country.
The growth in foreign populations working in the U.S. under Biden, many of whom entered the country as the result of illegal immigration, has helped boost overall growth numbers and make the economy appear in better shape, despite native-born workers not seeing those benefits. The recent action by the Biden administration to stem the flow could depress topline job gains if it is successful.
The foreign-born population in the U.S. has surged 6.6 million since Biden took office in January 2021, with an estimated 58% being due to illegal immigration, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. The BLS does not specify the immigration status of workers it is documenting, but it does include illegal immigrants in its estimates for foreign-born workers.
Despite the lack of growth in native-born employment levels, the total number of people employed rose by 2.4 million in May compared to February 2020, right before the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of Americans holding jobs declined by 408,000 from April to May, according to the BLS.
“While today’s jobs report posted another impressive number of jobs created, unfortunately, the Biden administration record is weaker than the numbers would imply,” Michael Faulkender, chief economist at the America First Policy Institute, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Over the last three years, wages have not kept up with inflation, there’s been significant growth in part-time work, and most of the new job creation has gone to foreign-born workers. The American people deserve an economy that puts them first rather than the government centralizing evermore authority.”
The total number of people employed is in contrast to the 272,000 nonfarm jobs that were added in May, of which people could hold multiple, far higher than economists’ expectations of 190,000. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.0% in the month, the highest rate since January 2022.
The above-trend job growth was made up largely of part-time positions, with the number of people working jobs for less than 35 hours a week climbing 286,000, while the number of people holding full-time jobs declined 625,000 month-over-month.
The White House did not respond to a request to comment from the DCNF.
