Nine out of ten new jobs have gone to immigrants since 2020

According to a new Center for Immigration Studies analysis of the January 2025 household survey, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

• Between January 2020, before Covid or the immigration surge, to January 2025, 88 percent (4.7 million) of the total increase in employment went to immigrants.
• 60 percent of immigrant employment has gone to illegal workers.
• One out of every five working-age U.S.-born men are not working. The share of working-age (16 to 64) U.S.-born men not in the labor force — neither working nor looking for work — remains near a historic high for an economic expansion.

“The long-term increase in men not in the labor force is linked to profound social problems,” writes Dr. Steven A. Camarota, “such as crime and overdose deaths. Addressing this deterioration is challenging, but bringing in so many legal and illegal immigrants reduces job prospects for American men. Equally important, relying on immigration to fill jobs allows employers and policymakers to ignore this enormous problem.”

In related news, a group of scholars across the political spectrum released a State of the Nation report summed by the New York Times’ David Leonhardt as this: “The U.S. economy has outperformed most of its rivals in terms of productive might and innovation. But this success has not led to rapidly rising living standards for most Americans.”

The policy of mass immigration plays right into the trends described in the report. Large-scale immigration grows the economy, but limits economic opportunity and – at unsustainably-high numbers – diminishes environmental quality of life. Our Six Great Immigration Solutions offer a better way forward.