Statistical Portrait of the Foreign-Born Population in the United States, 2006
This statistical profile of the foreign-born population is based on Pew Hispanic Center tabulations of the Census Bureau’s 2006 American Community Survey.
Work and Employment 
The Center tracks employment trends for Latinos on a regular basis, examining differences by nativity, generation, country of origin, gender, occupation and industry. The reports also offer comparisons with other racial and ethnic groups.
Also see our statistical portraits, state and county databases, demographic profiles and Census 2010 tables for data on the characteristics of the Latino and foreign-born populations in the United States.
01.23.08
11.29.07
English Usage Among Hispanics in the United States
Nearly all Hispanic adults born in the United States of immigrant parents report they are fluent in English. By contrast, only a small minority of their parents describe themselves as skilled English speakers.
08.21.07
1995-2005: Foreign-Born Latinos Make Progress on Wages
Foreign-born Latinos, especially the newly arrived, were much less likely to be low-wage earners in 2005 than in 1995.
10.17.06
A Statistical Portrait of the Foreign-Born Population at Mid-Decade
This statistical profile of the foreign born population is based on Pew Hispanic Center tabulations of the Census Bureau’s 2005 American Community Survey public use microdata file, which was released August 29, 2006.
09.27.06
Latino Labor Report 2006: Strong Gains in Employment
The Hispanic unemployment rate reached a historic low in the second quarter of 2006.
09.16.06
A Statistical Portrait of Hispanics at Mid-Decade
This statistical profile of the Latino population is based on Pew Hispanic Center tabulations of the Census Bureau’s 2005 American Community Survey public use microdata file, which was released August 29, 2006.
08.10.06
Growth in the Foreign-Born Workforce and Employment of the Native Born
Rapid increases in the foreign-born population at the state level are not associated with negative effects on the employment of native-born workers.
03.30.06
America’s Immigration Quandary
A growing number of Americans believe that immigrants are a burden to the country, taking jobs and housing and creating strains on the health care system. Many people also worry about the cultural impact of the expanding number of newcomers in the U.S.
03.07.06
Size and Characteristics of the Unauthorized Migrant Population in the U.S.
Analysis of the March 2005 Current Population Survey shows that there were 11.1 million unauthorized migrants in the United States a year ago.
12.15.05
The Occupational Status and Mobility of Hispanics
Hispanics and whites perform different types of work in the labor market. Moreover, the occupational divide between the two largest segments of the labor force appears to be widening.
12.06.05
Survey of Mexican Migrants, Part Three
The vast majority of undocumented migrants from Mexico were gainfully employed before they left for the United States. Thus, failure to find work at home does not seem to be the primary reason that the estimated 6.3 million undocumented migrants from Mexico have come to the U.S.
07.26.05
The New Latino South: The Context and Consequences of Rapid Population Growth
The Hispanic population is growing faster in much of the South than anywhere else in the United States.
05.02.05
Latino Labor Report, 2004
Hispanic workers enjoyed significant gains in employment in 2004. But the concentration of Latinos in relatively low-skill occupations contributed to reduced earnings for them for the second year in a row.
03.02.05
Survey of Mexican Migrants, Part One
Most Mexican migrants want to remain in this country indefinitely but would participate in a temporary worker program that granted them legal status for a time and eventually required them to return to Mexico.
01.24.05
Hispanics: A People in Motion
The places Latinos live, the jobs they hold, the schooling they complete, the languages they speak, even their attitudes on key political and social issues, are all in flux.
10.18.04
The Wealth of Hispanic Households: 1996 to 2002
Hispanic households have less than ten cents for every dollar in wealth owned by White households.
06.16.04
Latino Labor Report, First Quarter 2004
The “jobless recovery” may have turned around, but gains for Latinos have not been widespread. Immigrant Latinos, especially the most recent arrivals, have captured the most jobs.
02.23.04
Latino Labor Report, 2003
Latinos experienced substantial gains in the U.S. labor market in 2003. The number of Hispanics added to the employment rolls was twice as high as in 2002, and unemployment eased downward. For the first time since January 2000, Latinos experienced increases in employment that consistently outpaced their population growth in the United States.
01.07.04
Immigration Data Excerpts
In light of President George W. Bush's January 7, 2004 announcement of a new immigration initiative, the Pew Hispanic Center provided information about attitudes towards immigrant and immigration policy, and estimates of the size of the undocumented population in the United States. Sources for the data are the National Survey of Latinos, conducted in 2002 jointly by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Center's March 2002 report entitled “How Many Undocumented: The Numbers Behind the U.S.-Mexico Migration Talk.”
10.07.03
Jobs Lost, Jobs Gained
Latinos in the U.S. labor force were slow to recover from the effects of the 2001 recession, lagging non-Hispanic whites in restoring employment growth and the unemployment rate to their pre-recession levels. Immigrants and young Latinos encountered particularly hard times but college-educated Hispanics experienced substantial improvements in employment levels. These are among the key findings of this report on the labor market experience of Latino workers since the economic slowdown began at the end of 2000.
06.12.03
Hispanic Youth Dropping Out of U.S. Schools
High school dropout rates are a key performance measure for the American education system. This report shows that the standard method for calculating the dropout rate leads to a distorted picture of the status of Hispanic students in U.S. schools.
12.17.02
2002 National Survey of Latinos
This survey was designed to explore the attitudes and experiences of Latinos on a wide variety of topics.
12.17.02
Pew Hispanic Center/Kaiser Family Foundation 2002 National Survey Of Latinos
The Pew Hispanic Center/Kaiser Family Foundation 2002 National Survey of Latinos comprehensively explores the attitudes and experiences of Hispanics on a wide variety of topics. This survey was designed to capture the diversity of the Latino population by including almost 3,000 Hispanics from various backgrounds and groups so that in addition to describing Latinos overall, comparisons can be made among key Hispanic subgroups as well.
05.28.02
Work or Study
The Latino labor force is experiencing a major generational shift as increasing numbers of today’s young native-born Latino Americans become workers. This report describes the wage, employment outcomes, and labor market attachment of Latino adults by age and generation during the economic expansion of the late 1990s.
03.21.02
Guest Workers
This paper addresses three questions: (1) How many unauthorized workers are employed in U.S. agriculture? (2) How many unauthorized farm workers would be eligible for a legalization or guest worker program that required e.g. 60, 90 or 120 days of U.S. farm work during a qualifying 12-month base period? (3)How many guest workers would be admitted under the most likely legalization/guest worker programs; that is, what are likely exit rates from the farm work force for newly legalized workers? The concluding section discusses the implications of alternative scenarios for dealing with immigration and farm workers.
03.21.02
How Many Undocumented
There are more than 5 million unauthorized workers in the U.S. economy. This study estimates that these workers have become a very substantial presence in the sectors where they are concentrated. More than a million undocumented persons are employed in manufacturing and a similar number in the service industries. More than 600,000 work in construction and more than 700,000 in restaurants.
01.24.02
Hispanics and the Current Economic Downturn
The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential impact of the current economic downturn on Hispanic workers and families, and analyze how prepared Hispanics are for the economic recession. The paper is divided into four sections: The first section briefly explores the progress made by Hispanics during the economic boom of the 1990s. The second section uses the experience of Hispanics in past economic downturns to predict how they will fare in the current economic slowdown. The third section analyzes how well prepared Hispanic workers are for the economic slowdown. The final section draws conclusions based on the first three sections.
01.24.02
The Socioeconomic Status of Hispanic New Yorkers
This research report presents data showing the major demographic and socioeconomic changes in the Hispanic population of New York in the 1990s. It shows that despite gains in some areas, on average, Hispanics in New York were not significantly better-off in 2000 than in 1990. The household income per capita of Hispanic New Yorkers increased only slightly in the 1990s, compared to a much stronger expansion among White New Yorkers. By 2000, Hispanics displayed per-capita income of about one-third that of the non-Hispanic White population. The roots of the lack of change in Hispanic overall socioeconomic status in the 1990s lie, first, in the major demographic changes in the city, as reflected in an influx of relatively unskilled immigrants and an exodus of relatively skilled, high-income Hispanic New Yorkers; it also responds to the sluggish economic recovery of the city from one of its most severe recessions this century.
01.24.02
Estimates of Numbers of Unauthorized Migrants Residing In the United States
This brief report presents estimates of the number of unauthorized immigrants in the United States in mid-2001 for three separate groups: the total unauthorized population, the Mexican unauthorized population, and the non-Mexican Central American unauthorized population. The approach to estimation used is one set forth recently by Bean, et al (2001) that extends and amplifies work originally begun as part of the Mexico/U.S. Binational Migration Study (1997; Bean, et al. 1998). The specific features of the approach are described in detail in Bean, et al (2001). Basically, the method involves subtracting estimates of the numbers of persons residing in the country legally from the numbers of foreign born persons in official government surveys (which are known to contain both legal and unauthorized persons), and then adjusting for extra undercount of such persons in the surveys. The resulting figures give estimates of various unauthorized populations in the country.
01.24.02
The Impact of the 2001/2002 Economic Recession on Hispanic Workers
Currently there are nearly 35 million Hispanics in the U.S., making them the second-largest ethnic group in the country. But the effect of the current recession on this important group is unknown. Yet, it is unlikely that all Hispanics have been similarly affected by the recession. Hispanics are a varied group not just in terms of national origin, but also in terms of time in the U.S., ranging from newly arrived immigrants to U.S.-born Hispanics. This report examines how three generations of Hispanics have fared in September and October 2001, compared to September 2000 and September 1999.
