American-born workers gain 3 million jobs over past year as foreigners lose about 1 million

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in August showed that during the past year, there has been a decline of 822,000 foreign-born workers in the US. In that same time frame, the number of Americans employed increased by 2.76 million. At the same time, the unemployment rate in both groups has not changed that much. Unemployment counts those who currently do not have a job but are looking for one.

Labor force participation rate, on the other hand, accounts for both those who are employed and those who are not employed but are actively looking for work. Among foreign-born workers in August, the unemployment rate was 4.4 percent, up slightly from 4.3 percent last August. The unemployment rate for American workers in August was 4.6 percent, also slightly up from August 2024, which was at 4.4 percent.

Manhattan Institute fellow Daniel Di Martino spoke to Fox Business about how the labor force may be shrinking due to the impact of President Donald Trump's policies on illegal immigration and the border.

"The labor force is probably going to shrink, just because the native-born labor force is aging," Di Martino said. "The fact that the border has been closed for several months means that there's many fewer people entering the labor force."

"That's a good thing, though, in the sense that you don't want the labor force to grow because of illegal immigration. But it's a fact that it's going to mean the labor supply is much more restricted in illegal immigrant-heavy industries, which are construction, delivery services, restaurants and those services like that."