Thread: Immigrants Take 1 Million U.S. Jobs During 2008-10 Slump

Over a Million Immigrants Landed Jobs in 2008-10

Thursday, 20 Jan 2011 08:39 AM

DALLAS (Reuters) - Over the past two years, as U.S. unemployment remained near double-digit levels and the economy shed jobs in the wake of the financial crisis, over a million foreign-born arrivals to America found work, many illegally.

Those are among the findings of a review of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census Bureau data conducted exclusively for Reuters by researchers at the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston.

Often young and unskilled or semi-skilled, immigrants have taken jobs Americans could do in areas like construction, willing to work for less wages. Others land jobs that unemployed Americans turn up their noses at or lack the skills to do.

With a national unemployment rate of 9.4 percent, domestic job creation is at the top of President Barack Obama's agenda and such findings could add to calls to tighten up on illegal immigration. But much of it is Hispanic and the growing Latino vote is a key base for Obama's Democratic Party.

Many of the new arrivals, according to employers, brought with them skills required of the building trade and found work in sectors such as construction, where jobless rates are high.

"Employers have chosen to use new immigrants over native-born workers and have continued to displace large numbers of blue-collar workers and young adults without college degrees," said Andrew Sum, the director of the Center for Labor Market Studies.

"One of the advantages of hiring, particularly young, undocumented immigrants, is the fact that employers do not have to pay health benefits or basic payroll taxes," said Sum.

From 2008 to 2010, 1.1 million new migrants who have entered America since 2008 landed jobs, even as U.S. household employment declined by 6.26 million over that same period.

But in a sign of the times, the pace of job growth for new arrivals has also slowed, to an average of 550,000 a year from 2008 to 2010 from over 750,000 a year from 2000 to 2008.

Sum said it was fair to estimate that around 35 percent of these workers were undocumented or illegal.

Many immigrants acquired jobs in traditional low-wage work associated with foreign, undocumented and especially Mexican labor: hotels and food services, retail trade, sanitation, cleaning and construction.

There are a number of programs by which the United States lets foreign workers into the country to fill gaps in its domestic labor market but employer groups complain little is done in this area for legal, unskilled workers.

"There is basically no unskilled immigration that is legal. There are basically no provisions in the law for unskilled immigrants," said Bill Hammond, president of the Texas Association of Business.

Farm workers in particular argue that Americans would not do the tough field work that is rife with undocumented workers, titling one recent union campaign "Take Our Jobs". The slogan meant that if Americans wanted their jobs, then take them. But it is likely they don't.

Immigrant hiring also comes despite stepped-up workplace enforcement against companies that hire illegal immigrants and the rapid expansion of the online E-verify system used by employers to check immigration status.

Some of those who entered the country since 2008 were employed in sectors that generally require a high level of skills and education, such as finance and insurance.

But the 28,500 new arrivals since 2008 who found work in the finance and insurance sector only comprised 2.6 percent of the 1.1 million migrants. Over 90,000 of the newcomers since 2008 got work in health care and social services, a fast-growing sector where skills are in demand.

YOUNG, UNEDUCATED AND WILLING TO WORK

But the demographic profile of the immigrants who are still landing jobs is slanted to the young, uneducated, unskilled or semi-skilled.

Accommodations and food services, for example, was a sector that employed over 144,000 new arrivals -- the biggest group of employed new immigrants. These would be jobs such as hotel maids and dishwashers.

And 42 percent of the 1.1 million were under 30.

The unemployment rate for all Americans without a high school diploma in this age group is about 27 percent to 29 percent -- a level that Sum says is "Depression scale." And in sectors such as construction the unemployment rate is almost 21 percent.

Asked about hiring, industry sources say there is little.

"What hiring? Our guys laid off another 16,000 people in December," said Brian Turmail, spokesman for the Associated General Contractors of America.

Yet the analysis by Sum and his colleagues shows that over 86,000 foreign-born workers who arrived in America since 2008 have been employed in the construction sector.

Sum said the whole situation was creating a deeper domestic labor glut at the bottom of the workforce ladder, depressing wages and sharpening already widening income disparities.

But Ezequiel Arvizu, the compliance and diversity representative with federal contractor Sundt Construction in Arizona, said his company had hired new arrivals over the past three years simply because they often have experience that native-born Americans lack.

"People often think construction is unskilled but the trades are very skilled and we need cement masons, carpenters, equipment operators," he told Reuters in a phone interview.

"We are looking for qualified candidates and it just so happens that some of the candidates who we select are legal immigrants. It means they have the skills we are looking for," he said.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/immigr ... ode=B81E-1

. Others land jobs that unemployed Americans turn up their noses at or lack the skills to do.

And exactly what jobs would these be?

Can some of our ALIPAC activists assist here by writing this writer for Newsmax requesting a list of the supposed 'jobs Americans wont do?'

We keep requesting specifics on these theoretical jobs and have yet to receive an answer.

W

"People often think construction is unskilled but the trades are very skilled and we need cement masons, carpenters, equipment operators," he told Reuters in a phone interview.


That part there is ironic. I tried to get into that type of field, I found NO college that teaches those skills. The equipment operator I did find one school that teaches how to operate heavy machinery but that is because you require a special license. You don't need a license to swing a hammer.

You have to get hired by and trained by a company but if no company will train, then HOW are Americans supposed to learn those trades?

U-3 unemployment rate 9.7 %

U-6 unemployment rate 17.6%

seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate 23.7%

http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_da ... ent-charts

W This ia a reuters article linked by NewsMax

With the current trent to ramp up deportations and sweeps of companies I hope that the numbers will start to show a marked drop in the number of illegals hired and currently working here in the USA. Will be interesting but I know we are just entering many of the programs designed to identify and arrest illegals within our communities.

Many of the new arrivals, according to employers, brought with them skills required of the building trade and found work in sectors such as construction, where jobless rates are high.

ROFLMAO!! Exactly what "skills" do illiterate, uneducated illegal aliens from 3rd world countries have that we need?? Construction? PLEASE!

They act like Americans NEVER picked fruit, never worked in construction, never worked in warehouses and as restaurant cooks. What's the truth?
I think the truth is American employers like to hire illegals because they tend to work hard for lower wages, don't complain and don't usually file lawsuits for fear of deportation. I read somewhere that the average illegal makes a minimum of $1,000 a month and those who run businesses that cater to illegal aliens, such as catering, mobile food, long-distance calling card distributorships, cleaning businesses or clandestine operations, make as much as $30,000 per month!! I think if a reporter wanted to dig deeper, he'd find illegals living in big houses and driving very nice cars while the average unemployed American struggles to make ends meet or relies on welfare services.