While the labor markets seems to be returning to 2019 – 2020 levels, a closer look reveals that it isn’t all that great for native-born Americans. For many of them it has been declining for the past four years because of job losses to illegal immigrants, according to Epoch Times. Illegal immigrant numbers are obscuring actual conditions.

Since 2020, the number of illegal immigrants working in the US have increased 3.4 million, according to stats from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), while the number of US born workers declined by 78,000.

The number of illegal immigrants capturing the jobs has been more than double legal immigrants, according to the Brookings Institute. Although the Center for Immigration Studies suggests that that number is probably off considerably because it is hard to know how many illegal immigrants have entered the country and found work. They estimate that half the job gains have gone to illegal immigrants.

Economist Steve Moore proclaimed that the US actually “desperately needs” more legal immigrants, who possess high skill levels or special talents, but illegal immigrants tend to be less educated and do not bring such skills.

An article in Epoch Times reports that while the BLS includes illegal immigrants in their statistics, they identify them as “undocumented workers” and they deliberately mix their total with the total number of legal immigrants so as not to publicly disclose the number of illegals. Were the numbers available, the Center for Immigration Studies director, Steven Camarota said he believes it would reveal that half the job growth has gone to illegal immigrants.

In March 2024 there were a total of 31 million immigrant workers, making up about 20 percent of the US labor force, of which the Center for Immigration Studies estimated 9 million were illegal immigrants. That number increased 2.4 million in 2023 according to The Congressional Budget Office.

The Center has been concerned with a decline in the labor force participation of U.S.-born working-age men from the 1960s to the present. The decline is more pronounced among the less educated and it is linked to many social problems, including overdose deaths and crime.

Epoch Times reports that employed illegal immigrants include individuals who have been apprehended and released into the country, individuals who have managed to evade the Border Patrol, officially known as “gotaways,” and individuals who have overstayed their visas.

The Heritage Foundation points out that because of the illegal immigrants’ impact on the job market American workers also earn less than they would otherwise.