Debunking immigration fearmongering. Again

by: Jeremy Burton

Thu Nov 18, 2010 at 09:15:31 AM EST

How many studies, how much evidence will it take to get people off the high horse that immigrants take jobs away from U.S. citizens?  We shared one study 2 weeks ago, now another one, from NY's Long Island, infamous for fearmongering by a Democratic (and Jewish) county exec who turned Republican to run (unsuccesfully) for governor on an anti-immigrant platform.  Turns out, as reported today, that:

contrary to a widespread perception on Long Island... the expansion of the immigrant work force — both legal and illegal — has crowded out few American-born workers.

“The analysis finds very little basis for the frequently voiced concern that immigrants may be displacing U.S.-born workers, the report, which was based on census data and conducted by the Fiscal Policy Institute, an independent research organization in New York, said. “As immigrants have come to play an increasingly important role in the Long Island economy,” the study said, “they have for the most part been readily absorbed into the labor market.”

Somehow, I suspect this will not end the politics of fear quite yet.  Read the full story here.

Low wage immigrants: Good for the economy

by: Jeremy Burton

Sun Oct 31, 2010 at 09:23:57 AM EDT

Now it can be told: Just in time for election day, a new study, "Immigration, Offshoring and American Jobs" is being reported on today and demonstrates that cheap immigrant labor prevents offshoring of jobs, resulting in more higher wage jobs for Americans.  From the NYTimes:

when companies move production offshore, they pull away not only low-wage jobs but also many related jobs, which can include high-skilled managers, tech repairmen and others. But hiring immigrants even for low-wage jobs helps keep many kinds of jobs in the United States, the authors say. In fact, when immigration is rising as a share of employment in an economic sector, offshoring tends to be falling, and vice versa, the study found.

In other words, immigrants may be competing more with offshored workers than with other laborers in America.

Funny how a little thing called data gets in the way of all that fear and vitriol aimed at immigrants this year.  Al Tirah! Fear Not!

Great news about jobs! Also, terrible news!

by: Philip Bump

Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 11:31:58 AM EST

As you may have heard, the government released numbers indicating that the unemployment rate dropped to 9.7% in January. Hooray!

You may also have heard that the country lost 20,000 more jobs. Um, boo?

Your natural reaction (as was mine) might be: how does that happen? How do we lose jobs, but still have reduced unemployment? It's not that swine flu, is it?

Nope. As explained in this great blog post at NPR, the data come from two different surveys: one of employers (which gave us the 9.7% figure) and another of households (which showed the drop).  The differences between these two surveys are more fully fleshed out by a piece at FoxNews.com, which explains that while the Bureau of Labor Statistics' employers poll covers more people, the survey of households is statistically significant, covering over 100,000 homes.

The truth, of course, lies somewhere beyond these approximations. December's employment figures, for example, were recently revised  downward from an estimated 85,000 jobs lost to a whopping 150,000.

In other words, take a look at the numbers released today - but be prepared to revisit them in a month or two.