President Donald Trump’s stepped-up immigration policies are impacting the U.S. labor force, according to the Associated Press.
Preliminary Census Bureau data analyzed by the Pew Research Center shows that 1.2 million immigrants disappeared from the U.S. labor force between January and the end of July, including people who are in the country illegally as well as legal residents.
Pew senior researcher Stephannie Kramer said immigrants make up nearly 20% of the national workforce. Forty-five percent of workers farming, fishing and forestry are immigrants, along with 30% of construction workers and 24% of service workers.
The loss of immigrant workers coincides with the nation’s first decline in overall immigrant population after the number of people in the U.S. illegally hit an all-time high of 14 million in 2023.
Pia Orrenius, a labor economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said immigrants usually contribute at least 50% of job growth in the U.S.
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