The Election Is Over but the Deceptive Job Reports Continue; Immigrants Displacing American Workers

For at least a year during the months leading up to the November election, all  the candidates talked about was jobs—the shortage and their individual plans to create more of them. Yet none (that I know of) mentioned the link between over-immigration and American unemployment even though the 1:1 ratio of legal immigrants to work permits obviously means that more immigration creates a tighter jobs market. Every year, about 1 million newly authorized  foreign-born workers compete with Americans for scarce jobs. (Read my October blog about political avoidance of immigration’s impact on jobs here.)

In its latest monthly deceit, the Bureau of Labor Statistics October report again omitted individuals who have stopped looking for work. That devious tactic has allowed the BLS to release increasingly optimistic reports for the last four months which in turn the media misrepresents as part of a recovering economy which President Obama has lovingly engineered back to health.  The BLS cites November unemployment at 7.7 percent, down 0.2 percent from October.

The true employment picture is starker than any time since the 1930s Great Depression. In November, 542,000 Americans gave up their job search which more than wipes out the reported 141,000 gain, a total that doesn’t keep up with immigration or natural population growth. The labor participation rate (the percent of adult non-institutionalized population who are part of the labor force) fell to 63.6 percent down from 63.8 percent in October. This figure is particularly significant since the non-institutional population increased last month by 191,000.

All demographic sub-sections suffered. Among the 542,000 who abandoned hope were 340,000 African-Americans and 132,000 Hispanics.

Employment conditions will get worse before they get better. Last week, Citigroup announced that it would fire 11,000 employees and close six of it 31 New Jersey branches.  Nearly 2,000 jobs will be cut from the technology services. Despite more unemployed Americans hitting the pavement, the House recently passed legislation designed to allow 55,000 foreign-born science, technology, engineering and math students with U.S. university degrees to get green cards. Because the bill also called for eliminating the Diversity Visa, which Democrats support, it is not expected to advance. But it serves as an example of how uncaring Congress is when the subject is American workers. [STEM Jobs Act: House Votes to Give Green Cards to US-Trained Math and Science Experts, by Samantha Stainburn, Global Post, November 30, 2012

The Center for Immigration Studies published a backgrounder which showed that during the Obama administration, 67 percent of employment growth has gone to legal and illegal immigrants. Specifically during the third quarter of 2012, there were 1.94 million more immigrants (legal and illegal) working in the third quarter of 2012 than in January 2009, when the president took office. This compares to a 938,000 increase for natives over the same time period. Read the CIS report here.

The monthly BLS reports don’t reflect the conditions on the ground. To get a true picture, analysts need to factor in immigration and population growth, something they’re loathe to do.