24,710,000 Foreign-Born People Employed In U.S.

The number of foreign-born people employed in the U.S. dipped slightly in July but remained about three times higher than the number of unemployed native-born Americans, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

According to not-seasonally-adjusted numbers from the the BLS, 24,710,000 foreign-born people held jobs in the U.S. during the month of July — down slightly compared to June’s 24,816,000 level — and 1,369,000 foreign-born people were unemployed. The foreign-born unemployment rate also increased to 5.2 percent compared to 4.9 percent in June.

The foreign-born population also boasted an increase in its labor force participation rate from 64.7 percent in June to 65.0 percent in July.  The number of foreign born people out of the workforce declined from 14,241,000 in June to 14,056,000 last month.

While its unemployment rate increased, the foreign-born population still fared better than their native counterparts, which saw an unemployment rate of 5.6 percent in July and a labor force participation rate of 62.8 percent. Further, there were 7,436,000 unemployed native born Americans and 78,293,000 native-born people not participating in the work force.

The number of employed native-born Americans did increase in July to 125,012,000 compared to June’s level of 124,830,000.

Since the start of the recession in December of 2007 — ending June 2009 — the foreign-born population has outpaced the native born population in net job growth.

While the native born population has netted 1.4 million jobs since December 2007, foreign-born employment has grown by about 1.9 million. In that timeframe, the native-born population has increased by more than twice as much as the foreign-born population.