Ready to work: Understanding Immigrant Skills in the United States to Build a Competitive Workforce

In order to maximize the potential of foreign-born workers in the U.S., policy makers and practitioners in the workforce development field must first understand the diverse characteristics, assets and needs of immigrants. This report provides a detailed portrait of the foreign-born working population in the U.S., emphasizing sociodemographic characteristics, immigration status, geographic distribution, and levels of education and training. The study uses an innovative methodology to match American Community Survey (ACS) data with data on educational requirements for specific jobs produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report finds that immigrants have higher labor force participation rates compared to the U.S.-born with undocumented immigrants participating the most (76 percent compared to 63 percent of all immigrants and U.S.-born). Immigrants tend to be of working age and therefore younger than their U.S.-born peers. Overall, immigrants are overrepresented at the high and low ends of the education spectrum. However, immigrants are more likely to experience a mismatch between the level of education they have and the level their job requires. Among the significant numbers of immigrants working in jobs for which they are overqualified, they earn less than their U.S.-born peers whose skills are also underutilized. The report also points out that there is a significant demand for lower-skilled workers in the U.S. economy, particularly in the transportation, installation, production, and food preparation fields, and immigrants play an important role in filling the 35 percent of jobs that only require a high school degree. The author also suggests that "there is a limit to how many workers can be upskilled and the number of employees who can be placed in a higher-skilled job given the economy's continued creation of low-skilled jobs." Nonetheless, many foreign-born workers would benefit from greater access to additional education and training, particularly professional licenses and certificates. However, age, immigration status and geographic location -- important because states vary in their responsiveness to immigrant need -- affect the likelihood that immigrants will be able to access needed education or training. The authors recommend several areas for further research including an intentional collection of immigrant demographics rather than proxy data from the ACS, projecting future workforce needs and meeting demand for low-skilled labor, and examining how to ensure investments in policies and programs reach immigrants where they are. (Yuki Wiland for The Immigrant Learning Center Public Education Institute)

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