In 2025, 32.687 million foreign-born people were in the U.S. labor force, representing 66.3% of the foreign-born civilian population age 16 and over. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports these figures as 11-month annual averages because October 2025 data were not collected during the federal government shutdown. They should therefore be read as estimates for the measured period, not as an ordinary full-year average.
Contents
- Overall participation and employment
- Participation by age
- Gender differences
- Race and ethnicity
- Parents and children’s ages
- Education and unemployment
- Occupations, regions, and earnings
Overall participation and employment
The BLS defines foreign-born people as U.S. residents who were not U.S. citizens at birth. This category includes legally admitted immigrants, refugees, temporary residents, and undocumented immigrants; the source does not identify legal status separately. “Labor-force participation” means the labor force as a percentage of the civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and over.
The foreign-born civilian population age 16 and over totaled 49.295 million in the 2025 annual average. Of that population, 32.687 million were in the labor force. The foreign-born labor force included 31.321 million employed people and 1.366 million unemployed people. Foreign-born people accounted for 19.1% of the entire U.S. civilian labor force.
The foreign-born employment-population ratio was 63.5%, compared with 58.9% for the native born. The unemployment rate was 4.2% for foreign-born people and 4.3% for native-born people. These measures describe different parts of the labor market: participation includes both employed and unemployed people actively in the labor force, while the employment-population ratio counts only people employed.
| Measure, 2025 annual average | Foreign-born | Native-born, where reported |
|---|---|---|
| Labor-force participation rate | 66.3% | — |
| Employment-population ratio | 63.5% | 58.9% |
| Unemployment rate | 4.2% | 4.3% |
| Share of U.S. civilian labor force | 19.1% | — |
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Labor Force Characteristics of Foreign-born Workers News Release—2025 A01 Results. The foreign-born employment total included 17.786 million men and 13.535 million women.
Participation by age
Age is closely associated with participation in the BLS estimates. Foreign-born people ages 25 to 54 had an 81.2% labor-force participation rate in 2025. The rate was 53.0% among those ages 16 to 24, 71.7% among people ages 55 to 64, and 21.4% among people age 65 and over.
Within the core working-age group, participation was 79.0% for foreign-born people ages 25 to 34, 82.2% for those ages 35 to 44, and 81.8% for those ages 45 to 54. Their employment-population ratios were 74.9%, 79.3%, and 78.9%, respectively.
Unemployment also differed by age. The foreign-born unemployment rate was 9.1% for people ages 16 to 24, compared with 3.9% for people ages 25 to 54. The higher youth unemployment rate appears alongside the lower youth participation rate, so the two statistics should be considered separately rather than treated as interchangeable measures.
Gender differences
Foreign-born men had a 76.9% labor-force participation rate in 2025, while foreign-born women had a 56.2% rate. The employment-population ratios were 73.9% for men and 53.7% for women. Unemployment was 3.9% for foreign-born men and 4.5% for foreign-born women.
The gender gap was also visible among prime-age adults. Foreign-born men ages 25 to 54 had a 92.2% participation rate, compared with 70.1% for foreign-born women. Among people ages 35 to 44, the corresponding rates were 93.7% for men and 70.3% for women.
At older ages, participation was lower for both groups but remained higher for men. Among foreign-born people age 65 and over, 29.3% of men and 15.1% of women were in the labor force. Across all ages, foreign-born employment totaled 17.786 million men and 13.535 million women in the 2025 annual average.
Race and ethnicity
The BLS reported different participation rates across the major race and ethnicity groups shown for foreign-born people. Foreign-born Black non-Hispanic people had the highest listed rate, at 70.4%. The rate was 68.1% for foreign-born Hispanic or Latino people, 64.8% for foreign-born Asian non-Hispanic people, and 61.5% for foreign-born White non-Hispanic people.
Unemployment rates followed a different ordering. Foreign-born Black non-Hispanic people had a 5.9% unemployment rate. The rate was 4.4% for foreign-born Hispanic or Latino people, 3.9% for foreign-born White non-Hispanic people, and 3.3% for foreign-born Asian non-Hispanic people.
Among the foreign-born labor force, Hispanic or Latino people comprised 47.3%, Asian people comprised 25.9%, White non-Hispanic people comprised 15.0%, and Black non-Hispanic people comprised 10.7%. These race and ethnicity categories are the groupings presented by BLS and are not mutually additive across all possible categories because not all groups are shown.
Parents and children’s ages
Family status was associated with different participation rates among foreign-born parents. Foreign-born parents with their own children under age 18 had a 78.5% labor-force participation rate in 2025. The rate was 79.1% for parents whose children were ages 6 to 17 and who had no younger child.
The overall parent measure concealed a substantial gender difference. Foreign-born fathers with children under age 18 had a 93.9% participation rate, compared with 64.8% for foreign-born mothers. For parents with children ages 6 to 17 and no younger child, the rates were 94.3% for fathers and 70.3% for mothers.
Participation was lower when younger children were present. Foreign-born parents with children under age 6 had a 77.2% rate, while parents with children under age 3 had a 72.9% rate. Among parents with children under age 3, the participation rate was 94.9% for fathers and 52.4% for mothers.
These figures describe participation in the labor force during the 2025 annual-average measurement period. They do not by themselves identify the reasons for differences between parents, children’s ages, or men and women.
Education and unemployment
For foreign-born people age 25 and over, the overall labor-force participation rate was 67.4% in 2025. Participation varied by educational attainment: 38.4% for people without a high school diploma, 55.2% for high school graduates with no college, 61.9% for people with some college or an associate degree, and 71.6% for people with a bachelor’s degree or higher.
The unemployment pattern also varied by education. The rate was 7.3% for foreign-born people without a high school diploma, 4.3% for high school graduates with no college, 3.5% for those with some college or an associate degree, and 2.4% for those with a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Among foreign-born people age 25 and over who were in the labor force, 17.0% had less than a high school diploma and 43.2% had a bachelor’s degree or higher. The participation and unemployment figures describe outcomes for each education group; the composition figure describes the educational distribution within the foreign-born labor force.
Occupations, regions, and earnings
The occupation mix of employed foreign-born workers differed from that of native-born workers in the 2025 annual average. Management, professional, and related occupations accounted for 36.8% of employed foreign-born workers, compared with 45.2% of native-born workers. Service occupations accounted for 21.2% of foreign-born workers and 15.6% of native-born workers.
Natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations represented 13.3% of employed foreign-born workers, versus 7.9% of native-born workers. Production, transportation, and material-moving occupations represented 15.1% of foreign-born workers, compared with 11.4% of native-born workers. Among employed foreign-born men, 21.9% worked in natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations; among employed foreign-born women, 29.9% worked in service occupations.
The foreign-born share of the regional labor force was highest in the West at 24.5%, followed by the Northeast at 22.7%, the South at 18.7%, and the Midwest at 10.8%.
Median usual weekly earnings for full-time foreign-born wage and salary workers were $1,059 in 2025, compared with $1,236 for native-born workers. Median weekly earnings were $1,153 for full-time foreign-born men and $960 for full-time foreign-born women. Education was associated with a wide earnings spread: full-time foreign-born workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher had median weekly earnings of $1,762, while those without a high school diploma had median weekly earnings of $745.
All figures in this article come from the BLS 2025 foreign-born worker release and refer to its 11-month annual-average estimates unless another period is explicitly stated. October 2025 was excluded because data were not collected during the federal government shutdown, which means the estimates are not strictly comparable with ordinary full-year averages.