SOURCE: From the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics U-6 unemployment report from June 2009 and the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. The government's U-6 Unemployment Rate counts not only people actively looking for a job who cannot find any kind of work, but it also counts "discouraged workers" who just recently stopped their unsuccessful quest for a job and those wanting a full-time job who have been forced into a part-time position.

Also see analysis of June report by Center for Immigration Studies at: http://cis.org/WorseThanItSeems

Do Unemployed Americans Deserve Suspension of Most Immigration?

The Americans represented in the above statistics are actively searching for a job and cannot find even a part-time job.

Those unemployed Americans in that table above primarily are looking for jobs in the same non-agricultural occupations where illegal foreign workers are currently employed – manufacturing, service, construction. An April 2009 study by the Pew Hispanic Center estimated that more than 8 million illegal foreign workers hold U.S. jobs. Any talk of legalizing those illegal workers is talk about keeping the Americans above out of those 8 million jobs.

Additionally, most of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants entering the country legally this year under extended-family categories and the visa lottery also will be competing for jobs with these unemployed Americans.

Isn’t the compassionate option to suspend most immigration (at the least,suspend chain-migration and visa lottery immigration) and stop making it more difficult for jobless Americans to find a job?