In the job market, some win, some lose
Immigrants take jobs Americans don't want. You hear it said all the time.
But a new study by a team of economists at Northeastern University suggests that in today's world, the real story is more complicated. Specifically, at a time when jobs are not easy to come by, immigrants and native-born workers sometimes compete for jobs -- a competition that produces losers as well as winners.
In the 1990s, immigrants captured close to 50 percent of the job growth in the United States. But in a booming economy, so many new jobs were created that the economic fortunes of virtually every group improved.
In the new century, the situation is quite different. Since 2000, the United States has produced a little more than 2 million new jobs, according to the Census Bureau's monthly household survey. This same survey shows that new immigrants -- those who have come to America since 2000 -- gained about the same number of jobs, a little more than 2 million.
In other words, they captured 100 percent of the job growth over the four-year period. Immigrants, of course, didn't fill every new job opening. But on a net basis, their gains equaled the gains made throughout the economy.
The newcomers to the workforce are a diverse lot. More than 50 percent are Hispanic; 19 percent are Asian. More than a quarter of them have at least a college degree; more than one-third don't have a high school diploma. Male immigrants without much education seem to have no trouble finding work. About 85 percent of them hold jobs, compared to about 60 percent for their native-born counterparts.
A majority of the new workers are men and nearly all are young -- a plus for the Social Security system, which needs young people to support the growing ranks of retirees. Immigrants work in all industries, but they are heavily represented in a few, including construction and hospitality.
"Most of the people who come to this country come with the right attitude: They are eager to work hard," said Paul Jacques, general manager of Boston Harbor Hotel, who, like many in his industry, relies heavily on immigrants to fill jobs.
Employers in a range of fields praise the reliability and work ethic of their immigrant staff. "In many markets, immigrant labor has become the employee of first resort," said Andrew Sum, a Northeastern economics professor and one of the new report's authors.
For employees who are the second or third choice, the past few years have been difficult. In 2000, 45 percent of male teenagers held jobs. By last year that number was down to 36 percent. In 2004 only 19 percent of black teenagers were working, down from 29 percent in 2000. Black males and adults with limited education, regardless of race, have also lost ground. Immigration doesn't explain all this change, but it is a key contributor, argues Sum.
Lawrence Katz, an economics professor at Harvard, says the weak labor market of the past four years exaggerates the impact of immigration. He says a balanced look at immigration has to take into account its many benefits, both cultural and economic. In states like Massachusetts, for instance, the workforce would be shrinking, absent significant inflows of people from other countries.
The Northeastern study does not amount to immigrant-bashing. It lays out the numbers, and lets readers draw their own conclusions. Two come to mind. The first is that immigration flows have relatively little to do with the economy's health. Immigrants will come in good times and bad times, drawn by the lure of America.
The second is that the market for labor, like the market for commodities and money, is truly global. Americans are competing with workers in China and India through outsourcing and competing with workers from Mexico and the Philippines through immigration. As in any competitive market, some people will come out ahead, while others will fall behind. What's unfortunate is that the losers -- the young and the poorly educated -- tend to be the same people who lose out in almost every arena of economic competition.
Charles Stein is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at stein@globe.com.
