Florida: Since 2000 52% of jobs went to legal immigrants and illegal aliens

Steven A. Camarota is the Director of Research, and Karen Zeigler is a demographer at the Center for Immigration Studies. Camorata and Zeigler released a report titled “Who Got the Jobs in Florida?”

Their report found that, “While Florida has been among the states with the most job growth in both the short and long terms, much of the increase has gone to immigrants (legal and illegal).”

“Immigrants accounted for 52 percent of the net increase in employment among the working-age (16 to 65) since 2000, while accounting for only 33 percent of population growth among the working-age. The labor force participation rate of Florida’s working-age natives has fallen significantly since 2000 and remains low relative to other states. Despite these long-term trends, both of Florida’s senators supported the Gang of Eight bill (S.744), which would have roughly doubled future legal immigration and granted legal status to illegal immigrants,” note Camarota and Zeigler.

Specific findings include:

• Relative to other states, Florida ranked second in the nation in employment growth among 16- to 65-year-olds over the last 14 years, but most of these gains have gone to immigrant workers (legal and illegal).
• From the first quarter of 2000 to the first quarter of 2014, 52 percent of the net increase in employment among Florida’s working-age (16 to 65) population has gone to immigrants (legal and illegal), even though they accounted for only 33 percent of population growth.
• Since the jobs recovery began in 2010, 64 percent of net employment growth among the state’s working-age population has gone to immigrants.
• Even though the state ranked high in employment growth, Florida still ranked 34th in 2014 in terms of the labor force participation of its native-born population (16 to 65).
• Among young natives 16 to 29 years of age, Florida ranked 35th in labor force participation.
• In 2000, two million working-age natives were not working (unemployed or out of the labor market entirely); by 2014 it was nearly 3.3 million — a 62 percent increase.
• Perhaps most striking, through the first quarter of this year, the labor force participation rate of natives shows no improvement in Florida, even after the jobs recovery began in 2010.
• If the employment rate of natives (16 to 65) in the first quarter of 2014 were what it was in 2000, 768,000 more natives would be working.
• New immigrants took jobs across Florida’s labor market, including lower-skilled jobs such as maintenance and construction, middle-skilled jobs such as sales and office support, and higher-skilled jobs such as management and health care professions.
• While agriculture gets a lot of attention in the state, it employs a tiny share of immigrant workers — less than 1 percent.
• The supply of potential workers in Florida is enormous: half a million native-born college graduates were not working in the first quarter of 2014, as were one million with some college and 1.4 million with no more than a high school education.
• The labor force participation of black, Hispanic, young, and less-educated workers in Florida show the biggest declines.

In September 2013, many of Florida’s biggest employers including Disney, American Airlines, UPS, and Honeywell, along with a number of other companies, jointly signed a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) arguing that there are not enough workers in the country — skilled and unskilled. The letter read in part that, “many of our companies continue to have difficulty finding sufficient American workers.” Both of Florida’s senators supported the Gang of Eight bill (S.744), which would roughly double legal immigration as well as grant legal status to illegal immigrants. In fact, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio was one of the bill’s chief architects. However, the employment picture for Florida’s native-born population continues to look bleak.

Read the full report by clicking here.

Janelle Irwin from WMNF Radio reports that more refugees from Syria are on their way to Florida. Irwin writes:

Nearly 30,000 refugees come into Florida every year from countries all over the world.

With ongoing violence in Syria, Simon Henshaw from the State Department says very few Syrian refugees have arrived in the U.S., but that’s about to change.

“We have pledged to take a significant number and we will start interviewing Syrian refugees soon. But it takes about 18-24 months for someone to run through our system. So, we will not, as a country, see a significant amount of Syrian refugees come into the U.S. until the end of next year and then into 2016.”

Henshaw works in the bureau of population, refugees and migration. He’s visiting Tampa on World Refugee Day to see how Tampa is integrating refugees. Most are from places like Haiti and Cuba where refugees have been displaced for years.

“Despite how horrific the Syria situation is, it’s really just reaching the point where refugees have been out of their countries for a long enough time to consider a resettlement program.”

Read more.

During the 2014 legislative session the Republican controlled Florida Senate and House rewarded illegals with in-state tuition. Additionally, lawyers who are here illegally now have the right to practice law in the sunshine state. Guess who these lawyers are going to represent? Any questions on why?

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