Tens of millions of native-born Americans are out of the labor market as foreign-born workers account for all net job growth over the last year, new analysis details. from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) tracks the decline in labor force participation among native-born Americans from 1960 to 2024 — an alarming trend that has coincided with skyrocketing immigration levels.
Relying on immigrant workers has allowed our country to ignore the decades-long decline in labor force participation, CIS Director of Research Steven Camarota said, urging policymakers to undertake much-needed reforms in welfare and disability programs. As of April, 43 million working-age native-born Americans from 16 to 64 years old were not in the labor force — about 8.5 million more than in the year 2000. More specifically, the share of working-age native-born American men not in the labor force has increased from 11 percent in April 1960 to 22 percent in April of this year. If today’s labor force participation rate for these men matched the 1960s, there would be about 9 million more men in the workforce. Even among native-born American men considered “prime age” to be in the workforce, the share not in the labor force has gone from four percent in April 1960 to 12 percent in April 2024. At the same time, the latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that while there are 1.1 million fewer native-born Americans in the workforce since the same time last year, more than 400,000 foreign-born workers have gained jobs. on X. “Native-born employment has never returned to its pre-pandemic trend and is now below its pre-pandemic level,” Antoni noted. “Conversely, foreign-born employment is at its pre-pandemic growth trend, accounting for all net job growth over the last 5 years,” Antoni noted. The foreign-born population makes up 15.5 percent of the U.S. population. Without reductions to current immigration levels, the foreign-born population is projected to hit 82.2 million by 2040