About 90,000 legal immigrants are allowed into the United States every month

This means that more than half of April 2013’s job gain is needed just to absorb new legal entrants. Since January 2009, foreign-born employment has increased by 1.622 million, or 7.5%. Over the past 12 months, the labor force participation rate —a measure of worker confidence — increased for immigrants but declined for the native-born. At 66.0%, the immigrant participation rate in April 2013 was 3.4% points above the native rate. Overarching everything is the inexorable rise in foreign-born population. It grew 1.7% over the past 12 months, or at nearly twice the 0.9% growth of the native-born population (which, of course, includes the children of legal immigrants — and illegal aliens’ anchor babies).