Immigrants and the Makeup of the US Workforce
In 2023, approximately one-fifth of the workforce was foreign-born. Of the 160.2 million people in the US workforce, and again about 29.7 million were immigrants. This is an increase from 2010 when the immigrant portions was an approximate 15.6% of the workforce.
Immigrants can be employed across different industries. However, there is concentrations of immigrants in education, health, and professional services. Immigrants are filling services where there are shortages.
In 2006, Joel Garreau wrote a piece in Smithsonian, “300 Million and Counting.” The population replacement ratio was 2.01 then. He forecasted the replacement ratio would be dropping in the future and was already starting to decline. In 2024, replacement ratio is at 1.6. Couple this statistic with the decreasing baby Boomer population which is aging out of the work force.
In effect, the US will see a stabilization of population with a mix of older and younger citizens with a variance or gap between the two groups. Fewer people between the two groups. In which case, immigration would fill such a gap. There is a need for immigrants. Trump’s paranoia with Hispanics and civilians of color will cause a labor shortage in the not-so-distant future. Some facts of which to be aware.
Industries employing the most immigrant workers
Educational and health services employed the most immigrants or 5.5 million, or 18.4% of all foreign-born employees in 2023. This is followed by professional and business services with 4.7 million (15.8%) and construction with 3.3 million (11.1%).
Basically, what this report is saying many arrive in the US with some type of educational. Thet are filling the gaps in healthcare, professional, and business services.
Employed foreign-born workers, by industry, 2023
Educational and health services employed the highest number of native-born workers, too – 31.4 million people, or almost 25% of all native Americans in the workforce.
Wholesale and retail trades employ another 12.6%, and professional and business services ranks third with 12.1%.
The mining industry had the lowest number of both foreign-born and native-born people: it employed around 74,000 foreign-born workers in 2023, about 0.2% of employed immigrants, and about 517,000 native Americans (0.4%).
Which industries have the highest percentage of immigrants in their workforces?
The construction industry had the highest percentage of immigrant workers in 2023: an estimated 3.3 million, or 28.6% of all the people employed by that industry.
The second-largest percentage of immigrant workers was in professional and business services, at 22.9%. The third highest was “Other services” — a broad category that includes a range of services like auto repair, barber and beauty salons, and religious organizations — at 21.9%.
Which industries have had the most growth in immigrant employment?
The number of immigrants employed grew in every industry, except two, between 2010 and 2023, with numbers growing faster in some sectors than others. The most substantial growth was in the transportation and utilities, professional and business services, and construction industries, all of which saw the size of their foreign-born workforces increase by at least 5 percentage points.
Immigrant employment dropped in two industries: agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting and leisure and hospitality.
Are these industries where native-born employee numbers are declining?
By 2023, every industry employed more foreign-born people than in 2010. Employment of native-born people also increased across most industries, except for three: mining (-15.0%), information (-7.2%), and wholesale and retail trade (-3.5%).
All of the data on the page was sourced directly from government agencies. The analysis and final review was performed by USAFacts.
“Which US industries employ the most immigrant workers?” USAFacts
“How many immigrants are in the American workforce?” USAFacts
Can you give a description of what labor shortage means? Is it only in some sectors? For example, if immigration is highly restricted and the entire available native workforce gets employed, I can sort of understand it as a labor shortage if national dental health suffers because of not enough dentists and hygenists. But is a labor shortage in a sector like fast food that they might possibly employ more people, but get outcompeted for native workers? It seems to me that workers, whether immigrant or native, fundamentally get distributed by some sense of what’s very important and what’s less important. Are there some tasks that America absolutely must get done in 5, 10, etc. years that cannot without immigrants? The railroads post-Civil War supposedly had to have immigrants. Are there examples like that currently? Healthcare?
@Eric,
Most of the produce in your grocery store was hand-picked by immigrants. Many workers in housing construction are immigrants. The reason is that native workers won’t work for the wages of immigrants, and consumers don’t want to pay the prices that higher wages would require.
Hope that helps.