August 2015 BLS Report: Female Workers Losing Ground to Immigrants

Women hoping to work to supplement the family income or to replace lost incomes when their husbands were fired or laid off had a rough August. Ditto for young college female graduates trying to land their first job, current university enrollees who want to offset their rising tuition costs or retirees seeking to generate extra cash to meet expenses.
 
The August report issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that for U.S.-born women 16 and older jobs declined by 90,000, but rose for foreign-born women by 141,000. Of the total 25 million foreign-born workers in the U.S. labor force, 10 million are immigrant women.

Immigration hurting all working Americans in August, with women hit hard.

During this time of increasingly fewer jobs, especially those that are full time, offer benefits and pay well, America’s working women should not have to take a back seat to foreign nationals. Earlier this year, rubbing salt into the wounds, President Obama approved work permits for the spouses of H-1B visa holders, allowing them access to the labor market for the first time. Historically, spouses who held H-4 visas were not eligible for employment authorization documents.
 
Important disclaimer: this commentary should not be misinterpreted as anti-immigrant. Upon entry to the U.S., legal immigrants receive work permission. No one faults them for finding jobs. But the federal government should be blamed for its reckless immigration laws that, regardless f economic uncertainty, put American workers at risk. For nearly two decades, the U.S. has accepted roughly 1 million legal, work authorized immigrants each year, some of whom take jobs Americans have done and would eagerly continue to do, given the opportunity.
 
Immigration totals should be adjusted according to the nation’s ability to absorb immigrants. Given the troubled economic conditions in the U.S. that include 8 million unemployed Americans and another 92 million detached from the labor force, the appropriate adjustment is a dramatic, permanent immigration reduction. The U.S. has a shamefully high number of poor women, six in every ten adults, without adding to their burden through immigration.
 
For all the bombast on the campaign trail about which candidate respects women most, none has pledged to support them by reducing job competition from foreign-born workers by lowering immigration, a stance that would set them apart from the also rans.