October 10, 2003
Unemployment – Hispanic Immigrants Gain, American Workers Lose
After 7 down months,
employment finally went up in September. But the
57,000 job increase was not enough to reduce the
unemployment rate. It held steady at 6.1%.
Why the disconnect?
Needless to say, the Establishment media didn’t mention
immigration. But, as in reporting the poverty rate
announcement a few days earlier, one Big Foot newspaper
inadvertently stubbed its toe on the real story:
“But
the increase in jobs was not large enough to match the
growth in the population, and the percentage of adults
with jobs fell to the lowest level in 10 years…
Employment must grow by roughly 150,000 to 200,000 jobs
each month to keep pace with the population.”
[VDARE.COM
emphasis] [David Leonhardt, “Employment
Rises for the First Time in Seven Months,” New
York Times, October 4, 2003.]
Is
keeping pace with the population such a problem?
Absolutely. The working-age population (16 years and
older) expanded by 7.9 million between 2000 and 2002.
Immigrants accounted for nearly half (48%) of that
growth. The foreign-born working age population grew by
13.5% in this two-year period - about 6-times faster
than the U.S.-born working-age population (2.3% growth).
There
are no monthly figures on immigrant employment. But
Hispanics are a good proxy. About 40% of Hispanics are
immigrants. That contrasts with just 4% of non-Hispanic
Whites and 6% of Blacks. In recent years nearly
three-quarters of immigrant population growth was
Hispanic.
Immigration has helped
push the number of working-age Hispanics up by 3.0% in
just the first three months of this year. By
comparison, the number of working-age Whites increased
by less than one-quarter the Hispanic growth rate (by
0.7%). Blacks increased by less than half the Hispanic
rate (by 1.2%).
So
how do these population growth factors play out in a
generally
bleak labor market?
The
answer is stark: Hispanics are crowding out the
traditional American racial groups. The number of
employed Hispanics rose 293,000, or 1.7% in the first
nine months of 2003 – their propensity to get work
exceeded their rapid population growth. Black employment
also rose, but not fast enough to absorb new Black
entrants into the labor force.
White employment actually fell.
As a
result, between January and September 2003 (dates chosen
to ensure consistent categories):
Overall the unemployment rate rose 0.4 % percentage
points, from 5.7% to 6.1%, during that time.
The obvious reason
Hispanics crowd out the traditional American racial
groups: they work for less. Recent research shows that
occupations in which new Hispanic immigrants account for
a quarter of the workforce pay as much as 11% less than
those where there are no new Latino men. [Source:
Eduardo Porter, “Hispanic Newcomers Damp Wages,”
Wall Street Journal, August 19, 2003]
In effect, it appears that
the government has decided to use immigration policy to
attack American workers on behalf of employers. And in
the process, of course, it is electing a new people.
Whatever the politics of this, the economic
conclusion is inescapable: Hispanic immigrants are
displacing low-skilled Blacks and Whites.
For a table of
Employment Data by Race and Hispanic Origin,
January-September 2003, click here.
