Figure 1a Change in Employment Over the Same Quarter Last Year for Foreign- Born and Native- Born Workers, 2007 to 2010 (nonseasonally adjusted; ages 16 and older; numbers in thousands)
In an October 2010 report, “After the Great Recession: Foreign Born Gain Jobs; Native Born Lose Jobs,” we focused on the period from the second quarter of 2008 to the second quarter of 2009 — when most of the job losses during the Great Recession occurred — and the period from the second quarter of 2009 to the second quarter of 2010 — the first year of recovery from the recession. We found that in the year following the official end of the recession in June 2009, foreign-born workers, who make up 15.7% of the labor force, gained 656,000 jobs while native-born workers lost 1.2 million. As a result, the unemployment rate for immigrant workers fell 0.6 percentage points during this period (from 9.3% to 8.7%), while for native-born workers it rose 0.5 percentage points (from 9.2% to 9.7%).
But the jobs recovery has been far from complete for either group of workers. From the beginning of the recession in the fourth quarter of 2007 to the fourth quarter of 2010, native-born workers lost 6.1 million jobs, a drop of 4.9%, and foreign-born workers lost 262,000 jobs, or a drop of 1.2%. The unemployment rate for native-born workers is up from 4.6% to 9.0% and for immigrants it is up from 4.5% to 9.9%.
Figure 1a  | Change in Employment Over the Same Quarter Last Year  | for Foreign- Born and Native- Born Workers, 2007 to 2010  | (nonseasonally adjusted; ages 16 and older; numbers in thousands)  | Native Born  | Foreign Born  | 2,000  | I  | a :  | is :  | I  | a :  | I  | I  | 1,000  | I  | I  | in  | I  | I  | I  | a  | I  | I  | -1 000  | -2, 000  | -3, 000  | 44. 000  | 5, 000  | 6 000  | Note Data are adjusted to account for the effects of annual visions to the CPS  | Source Pew Hispanic Center ta bula tions of Current Population Survey data 