The number of foreign-born workers employed in the United States hit a record high in August, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Last month was the first time that the number of foreign-born workers exceeded 26 million. There were 25,984,000 foreign-born workers who had a job in July, and in August that number jumped to 26,134,000, an increase of 240,000.
According to the bureau, a foreign-born person is one who resides in the United States but who was born outside the country. Undocumented immigrants and refugees may be included in the data set, since the bureau does not distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants.
While the number of employed foreign-born workers is increasing, the number of employed native-born workers has declined.
There were 126,453,000 native-born workers employed in July, and in August, that number dropped to 125,670,000, a one-month decline of 783,000.
The unemployment rate for foreign-born workers is also lower for foreign-born workers. In August, the unemployment rate was 4.4 percent for foreign-born workers and 5.1 percent for native-born workers.