Alien Employment Rate Higher Than Natives'

Native-born American workers are suffering staggering job losses while immigrant workers, legal and illegal, are reaping employment gains, according to research from the left-leaning Pew Hispanic Center, a division of the Pew Research Center.

Native-born workers lost 1.2 million jobs in the year following June 2009, when Pew economists say the recession officially "ended." In that same period, foreign-born workers gained 656,000 jobs, according to Pew reseachers using Labor Department statistics.

The researchers found that the overall unemployment rate was more favorable for immigrant workers. The unemployment rate for immigrants was 8.7 percent in June, compated to 9.7 percent for native-born workers.

Cheap wage rates for immigrants may at least partly explain the displacement of native-born workers from jobs.

"It might be that in the search for jobs in the recovery, immigrants were more accepting of lower wages and reduced hours because many, especially unauthorized immigrants, are not eligible for unemployment benefits," the report said.

"They [immigrants] come here to work," said Rakesh Kochhar, director of research at the Pew Hispanic Center. "They don't care necessarily whether it is in New York or L.A. or Dallas or Atanta. They also tend to be more flexible in regards to the wages and the hours they put in."

---