The Workforce - Immigration's Diversifying Effect On The Workforce

The pie charts show the percentage of the foreign-born population according to country of origin for the years 1960 and 2000. There has been a considerable increase in those coming from Latin America and from Asia and a substantial decrease in those coming from Europe. Those coming from other countries also had an overall decrease. Among the foreign-born, whites are now the minority and Hispanics are the majority.

The increase in Latin American and Asian immigration has led to more Hispanic and Asian workers entering the workforce. The increase is so dramatic, that, coupled with the high of these groups and their increasing employability due to higher educational attainment, the number of entrants to the workforce is much greater than in the white or the black population.

Hispanic immigrants are generally younger and of an age ready to enter the workforce. Many also bring their families and continue to have children after arriving. Therefore, not only do the parents enter the workforce shortly after arrival, but the children they bring and those born later ensure that there will be large numbers of Hispanics entering the workforce in the future.

Asian immigrants are also generally younger and of an age ready to enter the workforce. By 2008, Asians are expected to make up 5.7% of the workforce, up from 3.0% in 1988. During the 1980s, the immigration rate from Asia increased 77.5% from the 1970s, with 1,057,000 more Asians entering during the 1980s than during the 1970s. This rate has slowed somewhat during the 1990s, but 405,000 more Asians entered than in the previous decade. Overall, nearly 3 million Asians entered the United States during the 1990s, up from 1.3 million during the 1970s.

Black immigrants make up the smallest number of the foreign-born population compared with whites, Hispanics, and Asians. In 1990, blacks made up 7.4% of the foreign-born population. In 1997, foreign-born blacks were just 6% of the total black population. Therefore, immigrants are not adding significant numbers to the black workforce population.

Immigration from Europe has declined substantially in the past 40 years. White immigration provides fewer people to the white labor force than immigrants from Latin America and Asia.

Sources: Chart data: U.S. Census Bureau. "Table 2. Region of Birth of the Foreign-Born Population: 1860 to 1930 and 1960 to 1990," March 9, 1999. Retrieved March 26, 2002 from http://www.census.gov; U.S. Census Bureau. "Table 3.1 Foreign-Born Population by Sex, Age, and World Region of Birth: March 2000," January 3, 2001. Retrieved March 26, 2002 from y.Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Department of Labor. Report on the American Workforce 2001. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2000. "Foreign Born by Group, 1997." Retrieved October 31, 2001 from http://icg.fas.harvard.edu/~sa54/lectures/02_14_01_Lecture.pdf. U.S. Census Bureau. We the American…Foreign Born. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, September 1993.