Over seven in 10 of the 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States have jobs, many good-paying positions in construction, according to a new analysis of immigrants in the workforce.
The Pew Research Center said that 8 million illegal immigrants have jobs, some 72 percent of all illegals, and they are big as masons, maids and field workers.
“All told, immigrants made up 17.1 percent of the total U.S. workforce in 2014, or about 27.6 million workers out of 161.4 million. About 19.6 million workers, or 12.1 percent of the total workforce, were in the U.S. legally; about 8 million, or 5 percent, entered the country without legal permission or overstayed their visas,” said Pew.
The report’s focus is on the overall number of immigrants with jobs and Pew stresses that there is no industry where immigrants, legal and illegal, have a majority of jobs.
However, the report shows just how many jobs they do have and it breaks down the numbers jobs held by legal immigrants and illegal immigrants. And those numbers are big in many industries.
For private home jobs, immigrants make up nearly 50 percent. Ditto for the agriculture industry.
But in some specific jobs, immigrants do dominate, found Pew. “Immigrants account for about 60 percent of graders and sorters of agricultural products as well as plasterers and stucco masons, 55 percent of sewing machine operators, and about half of maids and housekeepers, tailors and dressmakers, and miscellaneous agricultural workers,” said Pew.
Advocates of cutting immigration into the United States, and deporting criminal illegals, have stressed that too many are taking jobs that Americans want, especially those with higher wages.
Source: WashingtonExaminer