1:01 p.m. ET, April 5, 2024
Immigration has elevated the scale of the job market
The 303,000 jobs added in March brings up the 2024 common to 276,333 jobs monthly. That’s greater than what was seen final yr (common of 251,000 jobs) and nicely above pre-pandemic averages (183,000 from 2010-2019; 125,000 jobs from 1939-2019).
It does carry up the query: How a lot of this progress is sustainable?
Prior to the pandemic, it was thought that including between 60,000 and 100,000 jobs every month can be sufficient to maintain up with inhabitants progress (and account for the rising Boomer retirements).
However, a report final month from the Brookings Institution speculated that the sustainable employment progress vary needs to be a lot greater — to the tune of 160,000 and 200,000 jobs monthly.
“Thanks to stronger immigration flows, the economy’s capacity has been increased,” Greg Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon, instructed CNN.
As of March, the variety of employed foreign-born staff climbed to a contemporary report excessive of 31.1 million, based on BLS knowledge. Foreign-born staff’ labor pressure participation charge was 65.9% final month. Comparatively, the participation charge for native-born staff was 62%.
“[Net immigration growth] is adding to the pool of American workers, and those immigrants are bringing some productivity gains with them in technological innovation and refinements,” Brett House, skilled observe professor on the Columbia Business School, instructed CNN. “That’s an important piece of data in an election year, when immigration is under a lot of scrutiny … The United States unambiguously is benefiting from an increase in net immigration.”
