ArtzDarkroom wrote:
Should Biden/Harris be blamed for this happening?
Yes, but you won't like the why
https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/the-hidden-reality-behind-high-job-numbers-us-born-workers-see-decline-5621989?ea_src=frontpage&ea_med=premium-carousel-0Millions of New Illegal Immigrants Mask True State of US Economy
‘That’s a big problem. What we’re interested in is how the economy is working for American citizens,’ says an economist.
Economists are expressing concern over the increasing number of illegal immigrants in the United States, who they believe are obscuring the actual condition of the jobs market and the U.S. economy.
For the last few years, the headline employment figure has been impressive. The country has recovered the lost jobs from the government-imposed shutdowns during the pandemic and added a few million more, despite a climate of high inflation and rising interest rates.
In 2023, the economy added approximately 3 million new positions. To kick off 2024, more than 800,000 new jobs have been added.
The labor market data is critical as it helps determine the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy.
Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said on March 20 that the central bank is monitoring the labor market “very carefully” and isn’t observing any “cracks.”
“We follow all the possible stories that are out there about there being cracks, but the overall picture, really, is a strong labor market,” he noted. “Things are returning more to their state in 2019.”
However, a closer look at the household survey of the employment report reveals a more gloomy picture. Employment for native-born Americans has been in decline over the past four years. This means that all of the job gains have gone to foreign-born workers, including both legal and illegal immigrants.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of immigrants—legal and illegal—working in the United States grew by 3.4 million between February 2020, shortly before the onset of COVID-19, and February 2024. The number of U.S.-born workers, however, declined by 78,000 during the same period.
In addition, during the Biden administration, there have been approximately twice as many illegal immigrants as legal immigrants entering the country, according to a study by the Brookings Institution.
“That’s a big problem,” says economist Stephen Moore.
“What we’re interested in is how the economy is working for American citizens. So, we’re distorting the jobs market with all of the illegal immigrants,” he told The Epoch Times.
Mr. Moore, who served as an economic adviser to former President Donald Trump, criticized the Biden administration for turning the U.S. immigration system “upside down.”
He argued that the U.S. economy “desperately needs” more legal immigrants, who possess high skill levels or special talents, rather than illegal immigrants, who tend to be less educated.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of immigrants—legal and illegal—working in the United States grew by 3.4 million between February 2020, shortly before the onset of COVID-19, and February 2024. The number of US-born workers, however, declined by 78,000 during the same period.
(Top) Construction workers help build a residential building in Miami on Jan. 5, 2024. (Bottom) Workers handle parts for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles as they come off the press at the FCA Sterling Stamping Plant in Sterling Heights, Mich., on Aug. 26, 2016. (Joe Raedle, Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
‘Very Troubling’
The BLS includes illegal immigrants in the labor statistics, identifying them as “undocumented workers.” However, the agency doesn’t disclose the data publicly and instead groups legal and illegal immigrant job data together.
Many economists have been surprised by the growing employment gap between native- and foreign-born workers since October 2019.
The contrast in the past year is even more striking. According to the BLS, native-born employment fell by 651,000 in March 2024 from the same period last year, while foreign-born employment climbed by nearly 1.3 million.
According to Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), it is hard to know the exact number of illegal immigrants who have recently entered the country and found employment.