March 31, 2009 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Foreign-born workers by region, 2008

In 2008, 24.1 million persons, or 15.6 percent of the U.S. civilian labor force age 16 and over, were foreign born.

Foreign born as a percent of labor force, by region, 2008
[Chart data—TXT]

By region, the foreign born made up a larger share of the total labor force in the West (24.1 percent) and in the Northeast (17.9 percent) than for the nation as a whole.

In contrast, the shares of the labor force made up by foreign-born workers in the South (13.8 percent) and Midwest (7.8 percent) were less than for the nation.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. Find more information in "Foreign-born Workers: Labor Force Characteristics in 2008," (PDF) (HTML) news release USDL 09- 0303.

 

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