Illegals land jobs, as more American-born workers are unemployed

[standup]

Study: Illegals land jobs, others pay
More American-born workers are unemployed
By Lilly Rockwell, Cox News Service

WASHINGTON - As Congress grapples with the question of how to design a guest-worker program for millions of illegal immigrants in the United States, a study shows that the number of illegal immigrants working is rising as more American-born workers are becoming unemployed.

Based on government labor statistics over the last five years, a report by the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors less immigration, found that employment of illegal immigrants with a high school diploma or less has grown as employment of Americans with the same credentials has dropped. Steve Camarota, the author of the report, said illegal immigrants are gaining jobs in a competitive low-skilled labor market that Americans aren't. "The people taking it on the chin are the people at the bottom," Camarota said.

As the number of immigrants in the U.S. work force grew by 3 percent, or 1.5 million, the number of Americans who were unemployed or not in the labor force increased by 4 percent, or 2.6 million. Industries like construction, farming and food preparation are increasingly becoming dominated by immigrant workers, leaving some American-born workers jobless, he said. The unemployment rate in those industries hovers around 11 percent, while the employment of illegal immigrants is around 18 percent...

According to the report, states such as California, Maryland, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee have received the largest influx of immigrant workers over the last five years, while at the same time charting the largest increases in the unemployment rates of American-born workers...

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