A trend seeing a growing number of immigrants working in the nation’s construction industry is expected to continue, if not increase in the coming years, according to various sources.
Meanwhile, a recent report put together by the Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies says that roughly 34% of the construction industry workforce is made up of immigrants.
That figure, notes the report, is “far higher than their 18% share of the overall workforce.”
The report, using the most available figures from 2023, additionally noted that the immigrant share of the industry’s workforce was at its highest in the West and South, “where immigrants accounted for 40% of all work in the construction trades.”
The states with the greatest number of immigrant construction workers included California at 52%, followed by New Jersey, also at 52%, Texas at 51%, Maryland at 50%, and Nevada at 48%.
The same report reveals that 61% of plasterers and drywall installers are immigrants, while 52% of roofers are foreign born, and 51% of painters.
Although their numbers were smaller as brick masons and stonemasons, immigrant workers still nevertheless made up 42% of that sector’s labor force; 33% of insulation workers; and 32% of carpenters.
According to a separate report published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Hispanics account for nearly 48% of the nation’s workforce, followed by Asians at 25%.
Besides construction, according to the BLS report, immigrant workers are most likely to be employed in production, transportation, and material moving occupations.
Immigrant workers were “less likely than native-born workers to be employed in management, professional, and related occupations and in sales and office occupations.”
Yet another study, this one done by the Pew Research Center, indicated that as of the end of 2022 there were more than 30 million immigrant workers in the U.S., up from 25 million in 2007. Of those totals, 63% were either naturalized or lawful permanent residents, while 23% were categorized as unauthorized immigrants.
The probability of an increased national immigrant labor force in the years ahead is underlined in the Harvard report, which notes that natural population growth in the U.S. is slated to become negative by 2040.
“At that point,” adds the report, “the country will be wholly dependent on immigration for population growth.”
December 12, 2024
By Garry Boulard
Photo Courtesy of Pixabay
