Labor Force Participation Rate Higher For Foreign-Born Workers than Native-Born

On Wednesday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate for the 25 million foreign-born persons in the U.S. labor force dropped one percent from 9.1% in 2011 to 8.1% in 2012.

Nationally, the U.S. unemployment rate stands at 7.5%.

The Labor Department says that 16.1% of the U.S. labor force is made up of foreign-born workers, nearly half of which (48.3%) are Hispanics.

Median weekly wages between native-born and foreign-born workers differ $172.

In 2012, the labor force participation rate of foreign-born was slightly higher than that of native-born worker, at 66.3% and 63.2% respectively.

The Labor Department also covered differences in educational attainment, finding that while nearly a quarter (24.6%) of foreign-born workers 25 years old and over lacked a high school degree, only 5.1% of native-born workers had failed to graduate high school.