The number of foreign-born workers employed in the United States hit a record high in September, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The number of foreign-born workers exceeded 26 million for the first time in August. There were 26,134,000 foreign-born workers who had a job in August, and in September that number increased to 26,146,000, an increase of 12,000.
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.
The number of employed native-born workers also increased over the month, although their unemployment rate is higher than that for the foreign-born.
There were 125,670,000 native-born workers employed in August, and increased to 125,832,000 in September, an increase of 162,000.
The unemployment rate was 4.4 percent for foreign-born workers and 4.9 percent for native-born workers in September.