“But to put that in perspective: current immigration policy brings in around 100,000 new workers each month. Strikingly, black unemployment actually rose—to 15.5% from 15.1% in October. Immigrant displacement of native-born American workers has increased by 6.4% under Obama.”
The U.S. economy created 120,000 jobs in November, according to the monthly survey of business payrolls. Unemployment fell to 8.6%, its lowest level in more than two and a half years, sayeth the Household survey. Good news, at least by the standards of an economy that seemed to be in a recessionary death spiral in late summer.
But to put that in perspective: current immigration policy brings in around 100,000 new workers each month.
Drill down into the details, moreover, and today’s news is downright troubling. The lower jobless rate stemmed in large part from a decline in the size of the labor force. Some 315,000 people stopped looking for jobs last month, which usually denotes a lack of confidence.
Strikingly, black unemployment actually rose—to 15.5% from 15.1% in October—despite a big drop in black labor force participation. Hispanic unemployment held steady at 11.4% although they too exited the labor force. (VDARE.com will shortly post the second in my new National Data series monitoring the racial distribution of employment).
Household Survey employment rose by 278,000 in November–more than twice the Payroll Survey figure. We estimate that foreign-born employment rose by 14,000–a gain of 0.06% from October. The number of native-born with jobs rose by 264,000 – a 0.22% increase.
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