2007 Foreign-born Workers: Labor Force Characteristics — 2008-03-26

Foreign-born workers' share of the U.S. labor force continued to grow, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. In 2007, 24.0 million persons, or 15.7 percent of the U.S. civilian labor force age 16 and over, were foreign born. Their share of the labor force was up from 15.3 percent in 2006. The unemployment rate for the foreign born increased by 0.3 percentage point over the year to 4.3 percent in 2007. From 2003 to 2006, it had declined by 2.6 percentage points. The jobless rate of the native born, at 4.7 percent in 2007, was unchanged from the prior year. This news release compares the labor force characteristics of the foreign born with those of their native-born counterparts. The data on nativity are collected as part of the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly sample survey of approximately 60,000 households.