The number of immigrants employed in the United States reached another monthly record high in July, according data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The BLS reports that 25,984,000 foreign-born people had a job in the U.S. last month, up 133,000 compared to the previous record set in June.
The Labor Department defines the “foreign-born” as “those residing in the United States who were not U.S. citizens at birth.”
In other words, the BLS says that the “the foreign-born” are people born to foreigners in areas outside the U.S. or U.S. territories like Puerto Rico or Guam.
By contrast, the BLS explains, “The native born are persons who were born in the United States or one of its outlying areas such as Puerto Rico or Guam or who were born abroad of at least one parent who was a U.S. citizen.”
Meanwhile, according to Friday’s not seasonally-adjusted data, the unemployment rate among the foreign-born was 4.2 percent and the labor force participation rate was 65.7 percent.
The number of native-born Americans with a job also saw improvements last month. According the BLS, native-born Americans added 313,000 more jobs, reaching 126,453,000 in July.
Additionally, the unemployment level among native-born Americans was 5.3 percent and the labor force participation rate was 62.9 percent in July.
In recent years the immigrant population in the U.S. has been experiencing a more fruitful rate of job growth compared to native-born Americans. Since President Barack Obama took office, the civilian noninstitutional population of immigrants has grown by 6,304,000 and experienced a net job growth of 4,609,000. The native-born population has grown 12,579,000 and added 7,392,000.
Overall last month the economy added 255,000 jobs and the unemployment rate was 4.9 percent in July.