New Immigration Study: Illegals DO Take Jobs From Americans
by Bill Simon
A very recent study by the Center for Immigration Studies has the following conclusions with regard to “native workers” (i.e., American-born) and illegal immigrants:
* Looking first at all workers shows that between March 2000 and March 2005 only 9 percent of the net increase in jobs for adults (18 to 64) went to natives. This is striking because natives accounted for 61 percent of the net increase in the overall size of the 18 to 64 year old population.
* As for the less-educated, between March of 2000 and 2005 the number of adult immigrants (legal and illegal) with only a high school degree or less in the labor force increased by 1.6 million.
* At the same time, unemployment among less-educated adult natives increased by nearly one million, and the number of natives who left the labor force altogether increased by 1.5 million. Persons not in the labor force are neither working nor looking for work.
* Some of the occupations most impacted by immigration include maids, construction laborers, dishwashers, janitors, painters, cabbies, grounds keepers, and meat/poultry workers. The overwhelming majority of workers in these occupations are native-born.
Speaking as a lay person, I believe the use of the unemployment figure is a statistic that, by itself, really means nothing and should stop being bandied about as a reason to not focus on illegals (as our ignorant members of Congress keep doing).
I invite you to read more about the study by clicking the above link. Comment all you wish on what you think the results of this study means.
