April 03, 2009 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Foreign-born labor force and educational attainment in 2008

In terms of educational attainment, 26.4 percent of the foreign-born labor force 25 years old and over had not completed high school in 2008, compared with 5.8 percent of the native-born labor force.

[Chart data—TXT]

Similar proportions of foreign-born and native-born persons in the labor force had a bachelor’s or higher degree (31.7 and 34.6 percent, respectively).

Foreign-born workers were less likely than native-born workers to have some college or an associate degree.

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.

Related TED articles:

• Foreign born workers by region, 2008
• Unemployment and foreign-born workers, 2008