Miserable August Jobs Report Indicates Long-Term Job Displacement Trend for Americans

The first Friday of every month means another disappointing Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) jobs report. As usual, the BLS did its best to announce the August statistics in the most favorable light. Officially, unemployment dropped to 7.3 percent as the economy added 169,000 jobs, lower than the already modest expectations. But, more important, the employment rate fell because labor force participation dropped to its lowest level in 35 years. In August, more than 300,000 additional people stopped looking for work, and the participation rate fell to 63.2 from 63.4 percent.

The National Employment Law Project, which represents low-wage workers, noted that much of the August job growth was in retail and food services, typically low-paying, part-time jobs that don’t offer health care, paid vacations or pensions. [Not Looking for Work: Labor Force Participation Hits 35-Year Low, by Peter Coy, “Business Week,” September 6, 2013]

Shadow Stats, whose mission is to expose purposely misleading government data, offered this grim but accurate summary: 1) August labor conditions showed a deteriorating economy, 2) falling unemployment reflected a shrinking labor force, not rising employment and 3) August unemployment figures were 7.3 percent (U-3),¹ 13.7 percent (U-6)² and an eye-popping 23.3 percent as estimated by John Williams, founder and chief economist at Shadow Stats, and MBA from Amos Tuck School of Business Administration.

BLS uses a payroll survey to calculate its findings. But an alternate household survey found that employment fell by 115,000 in August. Indiana-based ESR Research crunched the household survey to learn how federal immigration policy might be affecting American job loss.

The ESR results: In August, native-born employment fell by 338,000, or by -0.28 percent, but foreign-born employment rose by 223,000, or by +0.95 percent.

This reflects a continuation of a well-defined pattern that began in 2009. From January 2009 to August 2013, foreign-born employment increased by 2.1 million, or by +9.8 percent. On the other hand, native-born employment declined by 181,000 or by -.15 percent.

The Center for Immigration Studies went all the way back to 2000 to find the relationship between population growth, immigration and jobs. First, between 2000 and 2013, the total number of working-age immigrants (legal and illegal) increased 8.8 million, and the number working rose 5.3 million. Second, the overall size of the working-age, native-born population increased by 16.4 million, yet the number of natives holding a job was 1.3 million lower in 2013 than 2000. Third, between the first quarter of 2000 and the first quarter of 2013, the native-born population accounted for two-thirds of overall growth in the working-age population (16 to 65). Finally, none of the net employment growth among the working age has gone to natives.

No matter how much evidence economists cite that an amnesty bill would devastate American workers, the pressure continues unabated to pass immigration legislation that would authorize 11 million aliens as well as increase by millions the numbers of non-immigrant worker visas for overseas employees. This host of depressing employment and immigration statistics sadly confirms the blatant disregard Congress has for the well being of Americans.

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¹ The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number, the official rate of unemployment.

² The U-6 unemployment rate is the BLS’s broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally attached workers, as well as those working part-time because they cannot find full-time employment.