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CV NEWS FEED // The latest employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) revealed that 88% of all United States job growth in the past five years has gone to immigrants, and the majority of these workers lack legal status.
The bureau’s January 2025 household survey, published Feb. 7, is the first to incorporate updated population estimates to account for the recent surge in illegal immigration, according to a report from the Center for Immigration Studies.
According to the BLS data, 88% of the total US employment growth — equivalent to 4.7 million jobs — from January 2020 to January 2025 went to immigrants. The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that illegal immigrants alone account for the majority (60%).
In contrast, U.S.-born employment has risen by just 12% (645,000 jobs) in the same period.
Over the past year, immigrant employment grew by 1.9 million jobs, 72% of total job growth. Meanwhile, preliminary estimates of the percentage of US-born men aged 16 to 64 who are not in the labor force remain near a record high at 22.1%, continuing a long-term decline in workforce participation.
The analysis suggests that declining workforce participation among US-born men is tied to broader societal challenges, including drug overdoses and crime.
“Addressing this deterioration is challenging, but bringing in so many legal and illegal immigrants reduces job prospects for American men,” according to the Center for Immigration Studies report. “Equally important, relying on immigration to fill jobs allows employers and policymakers to ignore this enormous problem.”
