IWS Documented News INTERNATIONAL

IWS Documented News Service
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor---------------------- Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau
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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.

 

AND MUCH MORE...including TABLES....

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This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.

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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                  
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