American businesses will suffer more if stricter immigration laws result in a large loss of workers in lower-paying industries.
Donald Trump, the incoming president, has made it clear that he will order large-scale deportations of Americans without the required paperwork. The societal, constitutional, and political repercussions of such a forced migration can be discussed by others, but my handy spreadsheet is only examining the number of workers the country’s economy might lose.
Finding statistics on the legal status of immigrant labor is one obstacle to discussing the business value of immigrants, particularly those without the required documentation.
Take the worker citizenship data from the Census Bureau. It keeps track of noncitizens, a broad group that includes foreign workers who are authorized to work in the United States as well as those who are not.
Please keep in mind this important warning as my spreadsheet examines the most recent data available, the census tally of jobs by citizenship for 2022.
Topline
In 2022, there were 14.7 million noncitizen workers nationwide, according to census data.
In 2022, that flock accounted for 9% of all employed individuals. For comparison, there were an average of 6 million officially unemployed workers in the United States throughout that year.
What sort of jobs do noncitizens perform, then?
Census data shows employment across 16 industries by citizenship. Although wages are not tracked by the statistics, other measures provide us with the incomes of all workers in these industries. That helps us estimate the size of noncitizens’ wages.
Start with this figure: In 2023, the median annual salary for the average American worker was $48,100.
Next, take into account that, out of the 16 industries that were monitored, nine generate yearly wages that are below the US average, totaling $35,000.
8.8 million noncitizens worked in these low-wage industries. Thirteen percent of all jobs in these industries are in that group.
In contrast, the average worker in the seven industries with above-average pay makes $66,500. 5.9 million noncitizens worked for these companies, making up only 7% of their total workforce.
Hot spots
Which American industries, then, placed the largest wagers on foreign workers?
trades that frequently have hard workdays and low compensation. Consider these job clusters, which are arranged according to the percentage of all jobs held by noncitizen workers.
320,000 noncitizen employees make up 33% of the industry’s total workforce. The median income for the entire industry was $28,800.
About 1.5 million employees, or 28% of all positions in an industry with average yearly salaries of $27,300, are noncitizens.
With salaries of $46,200, 2.1 million noncitizens hold 26% of all occupations.
With earnings of $19,600, 1.3 million noncitizens hold 16% of all occupations.
1.1 million foreign nationals 14% of all occupations. $42,000 in income.
1.4 million non-citizens earn $91,500 a year, accounting for 13% of all jobs.
1.4 million foreign nationals 12 percent of all jobs. $38,100 in earnings.
456,000 noncitizens earn $30,300 a year, or 9% of all occupations.
462,000 noncitizens earn $52,100 a year, or 9% of all occupations.
354,000 people who are not citizens 9 percent of all jobs. $22,100 in earnings.
817,000 non-citizens, or 6% of all occupations, earn $39,200 a year.
850,000 non-citizens earn $39,600 a year, which represents 5% of all jobs.
With an average salary of $80,900, 1.5 million noncitizens hold 5% of all occupations.
725,000 noncitizens earn $51,200 a year, or 4% of all occupations.
103,000 non-citizens earn $54,300 a year, or 3% of all occupations.
323,000 noncitizens earn $70,900 a year, which represents 3% of all jobs.
Bottom line
Supporters of immigrant workers comprise a diverse range of corporate types, making them an intriguing coalition.
Let’s be truthful. It seems that people can locate someone to hire them without any papers.
Supporting non-citizen employees has a fairly straightforward business sense. They usually perform tasks at a lower cost than many Americans would think to do.
Noncitizens, with or without permission, frequently take jobs from American citizens, according to critics of these hiring practices. Additionally, their employment alone depresses earnings for rival US workers.
However, if job opportunities were developed, who knows if there would be enough persons ready to perform such work?
Large-scale deportations or overt pressure to leave might, at the very least, seriously disrupt companies that rely heavily on undocumented workers.
Postscript
It’s safe to assume that US firms will increase wages to cover the newly available employment if there is a big loss of noncitizen labor.
Yes, that might increase the amount of money in people’s wallets. But it’s also reasonable to assume that these same employers will raise the cost of their goods to cover their increased labor costs.
That might complicate the country’s battles with persistently rising inflation.
The Southern California News Group’s business columnist is Jonathan Lansner. His email address is [email protected].
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