2023 Foreign-born Workers: Labor Force Characteristics — 2024-05-21

The unemployment rate for the foreign born in the United States edged up from 3.4 percent in 2022 to 3.6 percent in 2023, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The jobless rate of the native born changed little at 3.6 percent in 2023. Both measures are down considerably from their highs in 2020. However, the jobless rate for the foreign born remains above its level of 3.1 percent in 2019, prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, while the rate for the native born is below its pre-pandemic level of 3.8 percent. Data on nativity are collected as part of the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly sample survey of approximately 60,000 households. The foreign born are people who reside in the United States but who were not U.S. citizens at birth. Specifically, they were born outside the United States (or one of its outlying areas such as Puerto Rico or Guam), and neither parent was a U.S.