There were 9,956,000 unemployed native-born Americans in March 2013

If March 2013’s job growth rate persists — and if the native-born were miraculously to get all the new positions — it will take 59 months, nearly five years, for the native-born unemployment rate to reach the 4% level considered “full employment” by most economists. And that would indeed be a miracle. Because about 90,000 legal immigrants arrive every month. That means that essentially all the jobs created in March 2013 would be needed just to absorb new legal entrants. March 2013 was a disaster for native-born Americans. The Household Employment Survey, which records the ethnicity and nativity of respondents, found across-the-board job declines. In March 2013, native-born employment fell by 130,000, or by -0.11%. The long-term trend, of native-born workers gaining jobs at rates well below those of their foreign-born competitors, remains intact. Since January 2009, foreign-born employment has increased by 1.646 million, or by 7.6%. Native-born employment has declined by 581,000, or by 0.5%. Since Obama took office, native-born job losses are about one-third of immigrant job gains. Put differently, during the Obama years an average of one native-born worker has become unemployed per every three foreign-born workers added to the U.S. workforce. Between March 2012 and March 2013, immigrants gained 412,000 jobs, a 1.8% increase. In that same time period, the immigrant unemployment rate has fallen by 1.3 percentage points – or by 14.9%. The labor force participation rate – a measure of worker confidence — declined for native-born workers between March 2013 and March 2013 and now stands at 62.6%. The latest employment report shows that over the past 12 months the foreign-born labor force grew four times faster than the native-born labor force: 0.4% versus 0.1%. This is bad news for any native-born American looking for work.