April 26, 2007 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Foreign-born workers and unemployment, 2006

The unemployment rate for foreign-born workers fell from 4.6 percent in 2005 to 4.0 percent in 2006.

[Chart data—TXT]

The jobless rate of the native born also continued to decline in 2006, decreasing from 5.2 to 4.7 percent over the year.

From 2005 to 2006, the unemployment rate for foreign-born men declined from 4.1 to 3.5 percent, and the rate for foreign-born women declined from 5.4 to 4.7 percent. The unemployment rates for native-born men and women also both declined from 2005 to 2006.

The unemployment rate of the foreign born was lower than that of the native born for the second time since the annual data series was first tabulated in 1996.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. To learn more, see "Foreign-Born Workers: Labor Force Characteristics in 2006" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 07-0603.