The number of employed foreign-born workers in the U.S. jumped in March compared to the previous month, playing a role in adding to a strong labor market which saw an addition of better-than-forecast jobs for the month, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed on Friday.
The number of employed foreign born workers hit 31.11 million in March compared to 31 million the previous month, an apparent increase of more than 100,000. Native-born workers also saw their employment go up last month—from 129.3 million to 130.24 million—an increase of about 870,000 for the month, the data shows.
For the overall labor market, employers added more than 300,000 new jobs in March, helping the unemployment rate to tick down slightly to 3.8 percent from last month's 3.9 percent. Last month's job gains outpaced the average of 231,000 average gains per month seen over the last year.
"We are certainly also seeing immigrant workers and native-born workers, really, be part of this overall story of of growth that's much higher than expected, not just this month, but over the last several months," Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su told Bloomberg TV on Friday.
Last month gains came the largely from healthcare, government and construction sectors, according to the labor department. Healthcare added 72,000 new jobs while the government recruited 71,000 new workers and construction added 39,000 new employees.
Healthcare and construction are some of the sectors that have been helped by an improved addition of immigrant workers, analysts suggest.
"In construction, leisure and hospitality and healthcare are all places where you tend to see a greater proportion of immigrants in those sectors, there certainly was a lot of backlog in terms of immigration that was supposed to take place but during the pandemic got distorted and so there's actually been a catch up effect there," Skanda Amarnath, executive director of Employ America and a former Fed economist, told Newsweek.
Employers have shown a willingness to hire despite tightened financial conditions due to the Federal Reserve's hike of rates that have pushed up borrowing costs across the economy. Earlier this week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that there were nearly 9 million job openings available for workers looking to get hired.
Julia Pollak, the chief economist at ZipRecruiter, told Newsweek that there has been an increased in foreign born workers who are helping companies to fill openings, which in turn is helping to power the economy.
"If you look at like the the Fed's most recent Beige Book, almost every entry about hiring is about how it's getting easier to hire, how there's been an increase in the supply, the availability, the quality of of Labor available," she said referring to the central bank's summary of economic conditions. "And so that's helping employers fill vacancies and add jobs. But it's also leading to more spending in the economy. It's increased the consumer base."
An increase in foreign born workers is increasing in the participation rate of the labor market, Pollak added.
"So, unemployment is sort of steady and low at the same rates that it was in 2019, but job growth is averaging over 270,000 a month now and that is 100,000 more jobs being added each month than in 2019 on average," she told Newsweek. "How is that possible? Well, it's because participation is rising and part of that is U.S. workers coming in off the sidelines because the conditions are right. But a large part of it is workers coming from around the world seeking opportunity here in the United States, given how strong the economy is."
Diane Swonk, KPMG's chief economist, said that much of the job growth in March were helped by foreign born workers.
"Much of the gains were supply driven, buoyed by a catch-up in immigration. The labor force grew by 469,000 workers in March, the strongest monthly pace since August 2023," she said in a note.
The participation in the jobs market rate ticked up by 0.2 percent to nearly 63 percent, a number that Swonk said was the highest rate since November.
She went on to say that the household survey showed that employment rose by about half a million workers.
"That meant all the increase in the labor force was absorbed into those who could work," she said. "Over the last two months, foreign-born workers increased their employment by 1.27 million; native-born increased their employment by 435,000 over the two months." Foreign-born workers tend to participate at higher rates than native-born workers, as most people come to the US to work and feed their families."
Update 03/27/24 12:10p.m. ET: This article has been updated with more context.
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