• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer, November 15, 2016

According to new Pew Research Center estimates, presented by Jeffery Passel and D’Vera Cohn, using government data there were 8 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. working or looking for work in 2014, making up 5% of the civilian labor force. The number was unchanged and the share was down slightly since 2009, the year the Great Recession officially ended.

The recent stability in the trend for unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. workforce echoes that for the unauthorized immigrant population overall. Both groups had grown rapidly during the 1990s and early 2000s. Compared with their sizes at the start of the recession in 2007, the unauthorized immigrant workforce was slightly smaller in 2014 and the overall unauthorized immigrant population was markedly smaller. From 2009 to 2014, when the number of unauthorized immigrant workers was stable, eight U.S. states, Alabama, California, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Nevada, South Carolina and Rhode Island, had statistically significant declines in the number of unauthorized immigrants in their workforces.

Most states that experienced change in their unauthorized immigrant workforces also experienced change in their total unauthorized immigrant populations. In 12 states, both the total number of unauthorized immigrants and the number of unauthorized immigrants in the civilian labor force changed in the same direction from 2009 to 2014.

These key findings, and others about the occupations and industries in which unauthorized immigrants work, come from new Pew Research Center estimates based mainly on U.S. Census Bureau data, with the main source of data for 2005-2014 is the American Community Survey, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Looking at 2014 estimates, states with the largest number of total unauthorized immigrants in their workforces also were among those states with the largest overall populations of unauthorized immigrants. They included California, with 1.7 million unauthorized immigrant workers; Texas, with 1.1 million; and New York, with 600,000. States where unauthorized immigrants accounted for the largest share of the workforce included Nevada (10.4%); California (9.0%) and Texas (8.5%).

The nation’s 11.1 million unauthorized immigrants made up 26% of the nation’s 43.6 million foreign-born residents in 2014. The U.S. foreign-born population also included 19 million naturalized citizens, 11.7 million lawful permanent residents and 1.7 million lawful residents with temporary status (such as students, diplomats and “guest workers” in the technology sector). In total, immigrants represented 13.6% of the U.S. population in 2014.

In 2014, the nation’s civilian labor force consisted of about 133 million U.S.-born workers (83% of the total), 19.5 million lawful immigrant workers (12%), and 8 million unauthorized immigrant workers (5%). The numbers of U.S.-born members of the workforce and lawful immigrant members of the workforce increased from 2009 to 2014, while the number of unauthorized immigrant workers did not.

Unauthorized immigrants make up a larger share of the U.S. labor force (5% in 2014) than of the total population (3.5%) in part because they are disproportionately likely to be of working age. 92% of unauthorized immigrants are ages 18 to 64, compared with 60% of the U.S.-born population and 76% of lawful immigrants.

91% of unauthorized immigrant men ages 18 to 64 were working or looking for work in 2014, compared with 79% of U.S.-born men of similar age and 84% of lawful immigrants of similar age. Among women ages 18 to 64, labor force participation was 61% for unauthorized immigrants in 2014, 72% for the U.S. born and 67% for lawful immigrants.

Although unauthorized immigrants work throughout the U.S. economy, they are particularly concentrated in some sectors, according to the Pew Research Center analysis. Compared with their 5% share of the civilian workforce, they were overrepresented in the agriculture (17%) and construction (13%) sectors, as well as in the leisure and hospitality industry (9%).

By occupation, unauthorized immigrants held a higher share of U.S. farming jobs (26%) in 2014 than would be expected given their share of the workforce. They also held a disproportionate share of construction jobs (15%). By contrast, unauthorized immigrants held a lower share of maintenance, management, professional, sales and office support jobs than their share of the workforce overall. However, there is no sector or occupation where unauthorized immigrant workers were a majority; in all industries or occupations, they were outnumbered by U.S.-born workers.

For additional information from Pew Research, please visit here.