Im­mig­rants make up 13 per­cent of the pop­u­la­tion and 17 per­cent of the work­force

Shift­ing demo­graph­ics na­tion­wide are chan­ging the face of Amer­ic­an em­ploy­ment. Im­mig­rants make up 13 per­cent of the pop­u­la­tion and 17 per­cent of the work­force, but their em­ploy­ment pat­terns con­trast with those of their U.S.-born coun­ter­parts across in­dus­tries and states. Un­der­stand­ing these dif­fer­ences na­tion­ally and with­in each state is vi­tal for poli­cy­makers as they con­sider strategies to boost their eco­nom­ies and de­vel­op their work­forces. To help give them the clear pic­ture they need, The Pew Char­it­able Trusts pro­duced first-of-their-kind data on the like­li­hood of im­mig­rant work­ers be­ing em­ployed in 13 ma­jor in­dus­tries, com­pared with U.S.-born work­ers, in all 50 states and the Dis­trict of Columbia.

Pew’s on­line in­ter­act­ive tool builds on these data to com­pare the work­force dis­tri­bu­tion of im­mig­rants re­l­at­ive to U.S.-born work­ers across all states and with na­tion­al fig­ures.  Fol­low­ing are some key takeaways that can help guide ex­plor­a­tion of the in­ter­act­ive and in­form strategies for poli­cy­makers to make use of the data:

At the na­tion­al level, im­mig­rant work­ers are dis­trib­uted dif­fer­ently across in­dus­tries than their U.S.-born coun­ter­parts. Im­mig­rants are more likely than U.S.-born work­ers to hold jobs in six of the 13 ma­jor in­dus­tries ex­amined, in­clud­ing man­u­fac­tur­ing and ad­min­is­trat­ive ser­vices.

National Journal: http://www.nationaljournal.com/next-america/population-2043/immigrants-w...