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Except all those gains are among immigrants.

The number of immigrants working over this period is up by 2.9 million, while 183,000 fewer US-born Americans are working.

Put simply, compared to 2019, all the net job growth has gone to immigrants.

https://cis.org/Oped/Job-gains-are-going-immigrants-and-keeping-young-USborn-men-out-workforce

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By Steven A. Camarota on February 13, 2024
New York Post, February 13, 2024

We keep hearing that the US economy is strong, especially the job market.

At first glance, this perspective seems to be spot-on. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, right before COVID-19 hit, the fourth quarter of 2023 shows 2.7 million more people working.

Except all those gains are among immigrants.

The number of immigrants working over this period is up by 2.9 million, while 183,000 fewer US-born Americans are working.

Put simply, compared to 2019, all the net job growth has gone to immigrants.

To be clear, employment for both groups has rebounded significantly since the depths of the COVID-19 recession in 2020. But the number of US-born workers has not returned to the level it was before the pandemic, while immigrant employment (legal and illegal together) has ballooned.

How do we know this? The government collects the Current Population Survey (CPS) each month specifically to measure employment. It asks people where they were born and if they are US citizens.

Of the 2.9 million additional immigrants holding jobs, it is hard to say what share are in the country illegally. Both the Census Bureau, which collects the data, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which analyzes them, are clear that illegal immigrants are included in the CPS, but they don’t break it down by illegal and legal status.

However, we do know that 1.7 million — or six out of 10 — were not American citizens. The rest were naturalized US citizens.

Based on this and some other information in the data, it is very possible that half the net increase in jobs went to illegal immigrants.