Pew Hispanic Center: Foreign-Born Gain Jobs, Native-Born Lose Jobs

The Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center, released a report that finds substantial differences in the experiences of foreign-born and native-born workers during the recovery from the Great Recession. The report shows that, in the year following the end of the recession in June 2009, foreign-born workers gained 656,000 jobs, while native-born workers lost 1.2 million jobs. As a result, the unemployment rate fell for immigrants, from 9.3 percent to 8.7 percent, while it rose for the native-born, from 9.2 percent to 9.7 percent. During the recovery from 2009 to 2010, the immigrant working-age population also increased by 709,000 after a decrease the previous year. But employment for immigrants has not recovered to pre-recession levels, and their wages fell sharply in 2009-2010. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why foreign-born workers are more desirable. Perhaps they are more willing to accept cheaper salaries and wages, whereas those who are born here are not. Whatever the case, it's definitely a strategic move, and some might argue an exploitative one, on the part of employers.

Read more at the Pew Hispanic Center.