*FOREIGN-BORN WORKERS: LABOR FORCE CHARACTERISTICS -- 2009* [19 March 2010]

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/forbrn.nr0.htm

or

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/forbrn.pdf

[full-text, 14 pages]

The share of the U.S. labor force composed of the foreign born was

little changed in 2009, and their unemployment rate rose from 5.8

to 9.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.

The jobless rate of the native born increased from 5.8 percent in

2008 to 9.2 percent in 2009.

This news release compares the labor force characteristics of the for-

eign born with those of their native-born counterparts. The data on na-

tivity are collected as part of the Current Population Survey (CPS), a

monthly sample survey of approximately 60,000 households. The foreign

born are persons who reside in the United States but who were born out-

side the country or one of its outlying areas to parents who were not

U.S. citizens. The foreign born include legally-admitted immigrants,

refugees, temporary residents such as students and temporary workers,

and undocumented immigrants. The survey data, however, do not separate-

ly identify the numbers of persons in these categories. For further in-

formation about the survey, see the Technical Note.

Some highlights from the 2009 data are:

-- Both the number of foreign-born labor force participants (23.9

million) and their share of the U.S. civilian labor force (15.5

percent) were little changed in 2009 for the second year in a

row.

-- The unemployment rate of the foreign born (9.7 percent) was

higher than that of the native born (9.2 percent) for the first

time since 2003.

-- In 2009, the median usual weekly earnings of foreign-born full-

time wage and salary workers were 79.1 percent of those of their

native-born counterparts.

-- Hispanics accounted for 50.1 percent of the foreign-born labor

force, and another 22.3 percent was Asian.

-- The number of foreign-born white non-Hispanics in the labor force

declined, while the number of foreign born in the other major

race and ethnicity groups showed little change.

**************************************** Stuart Basefsky Director, IWS News Bureau Institute for Workplace Studies Cornell/ILR School 16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor New York, NY 10016

Telephone: (607) 255-2703 Fax: (607) 255-9641 E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu ****************************************