February Job Growth Poor, Immigrants Grab Most—And Wage Growth Still Weak. NOT Time To Increase Immigration, President Trump!

... “This is a disappointing report,” Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist of Northern Trust in Chicago, is quoted as saying. “I don’t think there’s any way to sugarcoat it. It’s a signal we need to be cautious with the U.S. economic outlook.” [The Jobs Report Was the Weakest in Months. Here’s Why, by Patricia Cohen, NYT, March 8, 2019]...

The Household Survey is our sole source of job data by immigration status of workers. The February survey found 255,000 jobs were created, 12.8-times the anemic job growth reported in the Payroll Survey. Our analysis of the February survey finds that immigrants gained jobs bigtime, while Native-born Americans lost them....

Since taking office in January 2017, he [Trump] has presided over a labor market in which immigrants gained 1.97 million jobs, a 7.6% increase, while native-born Americans gained 2.9 million, a rise of 2.3%.

As far as the jobs are concerned, “America First” has not translated into Americans First....

Since February 2009, the foreign-born employment share has risen by about 2.8 percentage points—implying that wages would be about one percentage point higher than they are today had an immigration moratorium been in effect since then—or almost a 33% increase in wage growth....

Over the long haul, only legislation can protect American workers from displacement and wage depression. Tragically, the Trump Administration appears, contrary to its campaign promises, to be headed in exactly the opposite direction....