After recession, natives get fewer jobs than foreign-born in U.S.
By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 09 November 2010, 12:36 IST
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Bangalore: After the great recession came to an end in June 2009, as much as 656,000 jobs were gained by foreign-born workers, while native-born workers lost 1.2 million jobs, showed the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Labor data by the Pew Hispanic Center. During this period, the unemployment rate for immigrant workers went down to from 9.3 percent to 8.7 percent (0.6 percent), while for native-born workers the rate went up to 9.7 percent from 9.2 percent (0.5 percent), according to Rakesh Kochhar Associate Director for Research, Pew Hispanic Center. The foreign-born working-age population (ages 16 and older) in the U.S. increased by 709,000 from the second quarter of 2009 to the second quarter of 2010. The immigrants make up 15.7 percent of the labour force. A greater share of their working-age population is active in the labour market. This is visible from an increase in the labour force participation rate from 68 percent in the second quarter of 2009 to 68.2 percent in the second quarter of 2010. Similarly, a greater share is employed, with the employment rate up to 62.3 percent from 61.7 percent. At the same time, the labor force participation rate of the native-born workers fell from 65.3 percent in the second quarter of 2009 to 64.5 percent in the second quarter of 2010. According to the study, over the two-year period from 2008 to 2010, second quarter to second quarter, foreign-born workers have lost 400,000 jobs and native-born workers have lost 5.7 million jobs. Even as immigrants have managed to gain jobs in the recovery, they have experienced a sharp decline in earnings. From 2009 to 2010, the median weekly earnings of foreign-born workers decreased 4.5 percent, compared with a loss of less than one percent for native-born workers. Although the reasons for only foreign-born workers gaining jobs in the recovery are not yet clear, greater flexibility on the part of immigrants can be a possible factor. The research says that compared to the native-born workers, immigrants are more mobile and the use to move fluidly across regions, industries and occupations. Another reason that immigrants are displaying greater success at the start of the recovery might simply be that their employment patterns are more volatile over the business cycle. The report also analyzes labor market outcomes in recent years not just by nativity, but also for racial and ethnic groups, including Hispanics, whites, blacks and Asians. While employment among Hispanics increased by 392,000 from the second quarter of 2009 to the second quarter of 2010, non-Hispanic whites lost 986,000 jobs from the second quarter of 2009 to the second quarter of 2010, and their unemployment rate increased from 7.7 percent to 8.0 percent. The Employment for native-born blacks decreased by 142,000 in the first year of the recovery and increased by 81,000 for foreign-born blacks. On the other hand, the employment of the native born Asians increased by 208,000 from the second quarter of 2009 to the second quarter of 2010, and employment of immigrants decreased by 102,000.

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