Immigration advocates who claim we have a “labor shortage” never mention the huge number of native-born Americans of working age, not counted as unemployed, who do not participate in the labor force. As noted in a recent study by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), the participation of these Americans in the labor force has declined from 84.1 in 2000 to 77.3 percent this year. The latter percentage translates to a total of 44.3 million people.
CIS maintains that immigration is one reason for the decline in native participation. By lowering wages, immigration makes the job market less attractive to Americans. The decline in native participation is particularly acute among U.S. workers with a high school degree or less. This is the group that faces the most competition from immigrants.
The CIS study observed that “[B]eing out of the labor force is associated with a host of profound social problems, from crime and social isolation to overdose deaths and welfare dependency. Policy-makers should consider encouraging work among the millions on the economic sidelines rather than ignoring the problem and continuing to allow in large numbers of immigrants.”
Read more at cis.org