A 2017 analysis of labor force participation rates using the government’s Current Population Survey (CPS) data for Tennessee, shows that:
immigrants (legal and illegal) accounted for all of the net increase in the number of working-age (16-65) people holding a job in Tennessee between the first quarter of 2007 and the first quarter of 2017 – even though the native-born accounted for 77 percent of growth among the total working-age population. Prior analysis indicates that 30 percent to 40 percent of immigrants in Tennessee are in the country illegally. Of the 229,000 immigrants in the state working, 70,000 to 90,000 are likely to be illegal immigrants.
Not much has changed from when the article Who Got the Jobs in Tennessee?, was published by the Center for Immigration Studies in 2014:
All of Tennessee’s employment growth since 2000 has gone to immigrants, yet natives accounted for two-thirds of population growth.
Reference to “immigrants” in both the 2014 and updated 2017 analyses include both legal and illegal entrants. Both reviews used CPS survey data which is collected by the federal government and is considered “the nation’s primary source of information on the labor market.” This data measures the percentage of the population that is either working or looking for work. The CPS survey also includes information about citizenship and place of birth. “Immigrants or the foreign-born (legal and illegal) are individuals who were not U.S. citizens at birth).”
Findings in the 2017 update include:
- The official unemployment rate in Tennessee is low because it only includes those who have looked for a job in the last four weeks prior to the survey. It does not count those who have given up looking for work and have dropped out of the labor force entirely.
- The labor force participation rate, the share of working-age natives working or looking for work, has not returned to pre-recession levels in Tennessee. In 2007, 75 percent of working-age natives were in the labor force; in 2017 it was 70 percent.
- Older natives in Tennessee did make some employment gains. In 2017 there were 30,000 more native-born Tennesseans over the age of 65 working than in 2007. It is worth adding that there are relatively few immigrants over age 65 in the state so older Tennesseans face much less job competition from immigrants than those under age 65.
The Partnership for a New American Economy (PNAE) Tennessee report is consistent with the CIS report in that illegal aliens come to Tennessee for “work opportunities” and that “undocumented immigrants are more likely to be working-aged than natives or other immigrants” in fact, “in the prime of their working years.”
The 2015 Measure of America report ranked Tennessee as having the ninth highest percentage of “disconnected youth”– those between the ages of 16 – 24 who are not in school, are unemployed, and have no career path. The Nashville-Murfreesboro-Franklin corridor was estimated to have approximately 29,283 disconnected youth, of whom 17.6% are black and 10.4% are white, a “continuing trend” unrelated to the 2007 recession.
The various reports seem to be sending a pretty clear signal that continuing support by Tennessee politicians to “welcome” illegal aliens to the state and would-be politicians to support entrepreneurial pursuits by illegal aliens, will only serve to further displace native-born Tennesseans from employment opportunities.
This sentence contained in the story above dosn’t make sense: “The Nashville-Murfreesboro-Franklin corridor was estimated to have approximately 29,283 disconnected youth, of whom 17.6% are black and 10.4% are white, a “continuing trend” unrelated to the 2007 recession.”
What demographic makes up the other 72.0%?
And yes, I realize I misspelled doesn’t.
HOW do these illegals get hired? Time to start OUTING these companies to ICE and raising cain about it!
A fair number do contract work, such as painting houses or putting up gutters. The homeowners contract directly with the illegal, just as the homeowner might contract with a legal resident. Illegals will typically do a job for much less, and the homeowner has no obligation to check employment status . . . it’s a classic case of willful blindness.
Another group does retail entrepreneur type things, like running a restaurant, used car lot, or convenience store.
Then where the large numbers come in: legal immigrants and “ethnic” citizens who still identify more as Mexicans/Guatemalan/Chinese/etc than as Americans are quick to help out people from countries that the employer self-identifies with. So, one legal Chinese man who runs a Chinese restaurant might hire 4 or 5 illegals in his place of business (along with several legal residents, too). It sometimes crosses ethic boundaries: I’ve been in plenty of Chinese restaurants in this area that have Chinese people at the front counter to greet the people, and likewise waiting the tables, but the kitchen and cleaning staff is largely Hispanic. Similar with construction contractors — the owner of the roofing company might be very much legal, but the crew he hires to do the actual work on the roof sometimes can’t even speak English. This helps explain why you see clusters of Hispanic constructions crews, rather than a reasonable diversity in the crews as one might expect — over half the population is white, and another 12% black, one would think the typical roofing crew would be half white and have at least one black person, but that’s not how it is — no reason to have a 100% Hispanic crew of 10 to 12 roofers if an employer is hiring only legal residents and not intentionally discriminating.
So are you reporting the people that do the hiring to the proper authorities. I mean you understand that is the issue, correct. The illegals won’t get work if no one hires them. The people hiring need to be arrested so they stop the hiring of illegals. That would change the dynamic wouldn’t you agree??
You should put the people hiring any illeagals. It is a waste of time chasing illegal aliens if the opportunity for work persists. Please contact the proper authorities about who is hiring aliens. If the opportunity drys up the aliens will leave.
Please hurry up and do something to enforce the immigration laws because Tennessee is giving away MY(and all other native born American)heritage to illegal immigrants by failing to enforce the requirements of SHOWING his or her real birth certificate BEFORE being able to get a drivers license.(I wonder exactly why? :/) I’m seeing Mexicans move in and out of the houses around mine every week! Have the politicians and police explain that?