Immigration ‘taking pressure off’ the job market, U.S. economy: Expert

The share of immigrants in the U.S. labor force has steadily increased for more than a decade, and that growth is poised to continue — a trend economists say benefits the American workforce and economy.

In 2006, 15.3% of the civilian labor force was made up of “foreign-born” workers, or those born outside the U.S., according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That share hit a record 18.6% in 2023.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said the increase in foreign-born workers is “taking pressure off the economy.”

“In fact, it’s probably one reason why the economy grew so strongly last year,” he said.

U.S. gross domestic product, a measure of economic output, grew by 2.5% in 2023, beating expectations and increasing from 1.9% in 2022.

The growth in foreign-born workers comes amid a contentious immigration policy debate in the U.S.

In mid-February, House Republicans impeached U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whom they blame for perceived shortcomings in border security. He now faces the prospect of a Senate trial.

Meanwhile, cities are trying to absorb an influx of people arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. In December, the U.S. Border Patrol reported almost 250,000 encounters with migrants crossing into the U.S. from Mexico. That marked a monthly record, though that number fell by half in January, according to federal data.

“The present migrant crisis is quite unprecedented, both in scale, in the diversity of the nationalities that are coming to the border, and the impact it’s having not only on the border states but in the states and cities inside the country,” Muzaffar Chishti, senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan immigration policy think tank, recently told CNBC.