New York SBDC Research Network

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics : The unemployment rate for foreign-born persons in the United States was 4.3 percent in 2016, down from 4.9 percent in 2015, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. The jobless rate of native-born persons fell to 5.0 percent in 2016 from 5.4 percent in the prior year. Data on nativity are collected as part of the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly sample survey of approximately 60,000 households. The foreign born are persons who reside in the United States but who were born outside the country or one of its outlying areas to parents who were not U.S. citizens. The foreign born include legally-admitted immigrants, refugees, temporary residents such as students and temporary workers, and undocumented immigrants. The survey data, however, do not separately identify the numbers of persons in these categories. Highlights from the 2016 data: --In 2016, there were 27.0 million foreign-born persons in the U.S. labor force, comprising ...

The Office of Advocacy, an independent office within the Small Business Administration, has released a report investigating the differences in STEM entrepreneurship between U.S.-born and foreign-born college graduates. The study finds that differences in educational attainment along with differences in the distribution of U.S.–foreign-born demographic characteristics explain most of percentage the gap.  Among immigrants who earned their highest degree in the United States, the rate of STEM entrepreneurship is almost 4 percentage points higher than for otherwise-similar native-born citizens. The report is titled Imported Entrepreneurs: Foreign-Born Scientists and Engineers in U.S. STEM Fields Entrepreneurship and is written by the noted economist, Margaret Blume-Kohout. It suggests several opportunities for policymakers interested in spurring new business creation and startup employment in new ventures focusing in STEM fields. The  full report  and  resea...

The unemployment rate for the foreign born was 9.1 percent in 2011, down from 9.8 percent in 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported . The jobless rate of the native born was 8.9 percent in 2011, compared with 9.6 percent in the prior year. The foreign born made up 15.9 percent of the labor force. Data on nativity are collected as part of the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly sample survey of approximately 60,000 households. The foreign born are persons who reside in the United States but who were born outside the country or one of its outlying areas to parents who were not U.S. citizens. The foreign born include legally-admitted immigrants, refugees, temporary residents such as students and temporary workers, and undocumented immigrants. The survey data, however, do not separately identify the numbers of persons in these categories.

The Foreign Labor Certification Data Center includes an Online Wage Library with Download Data Files, plus Foreign Labor Certification (FLC) disclosure data for the Permanent, H-1B, H-2A and H-2B programs.

Every so often, we'll get a question on behalf of a client who seeks to know the population concentration in the U.S. for a specific nationality. Until recently, I didn't know that the Migration Policy Institute has on their site a series of maps that can help meet this need. The site is limited, though, in the number of countries that it has tracked. In addition to a map of the U.S. that shows "States with the Largest and Fastest-Growing Populations of Foreign Born (2006)," the site links to county-level maps (in PDF form) for these categories: 1) The foreign born as percentage of total county population, 2000: Foreign-born population (total) Foreign born from Mexico Foreign born from the Philippines Foreign born from India Foreign born from China Foreign born from Vietnam 2) The number of foreign born by county, 2000 Foreign born from South America Foreign born from the Caribbean Foreign born from Africa Foreign born from Iran Foreign born from Pakistan In additi...