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Immigrant labor rate soars
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September 4, 2000: 11:05 a.m. ET
Number of immigrant workers jumps to highest in decades; pressures wages
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The number of immigrant workers in the U.S. labor force has climbed to its highest level in seven decades, according to a newspaper report.
On a day when Americans celebrate Labor Day, the New York Times reported Monday that the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the number of immigrant workers jumped to 15.7 million last year, an increase of 17 percent from three years earlier.
Also, the National Academy of Sciences study found that the influx of immigrants, especially illegal, unskilled workers from Mexico and the rest of Latin America have pushed wages down by 5 percent for U.S.-born workers who have less than a high school education, the report said.
With the unemployment rate at 4.1 percent, near its lowest rate in 40 years, many employers are pressing Congress for legislation that would allow hundreds of thousands more immigrant workers to enter the United States each year, said the newspaper report.
But groups, such as labor unions and engineers' associations, are fighting such a move out of fear that it would depress wages and decrease the number of jobs for American workers, the report said.
Immigrants dominate in the dozens of often low-paying, arduous jobs, such as poultry plant workers, meat packers, fruit and vegetable pickers, and hotel maids, said the report. And they now represent 12 percent of the nation's workers.
Economists and demographers predict a continuing surge in immigrant workers unless there is an economic downturn. Under existing quotas, about 800,000 immigrants enter the country legally. An estimated 300,000 enter illegally, according to the report. 
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