Labor force participation among US-born American men has plunged amid soaring immigration: analysis

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The Center for Immigration Studies’ Todd Bensman discusses the cost of illegal immigration on ‘The Bottom Line’ as the issue takes center stage in the congressional budget battle.

Native-born American men have been fleeing the workforce in droves in a decades-long trend that coincides with a rise in immigration, according to a new analysis sounding the alarm on the issue.

The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) released a study this week showing the share of working-age (16 to 64), U.S.-born men not participating in the labor force has soared since the 1960s, going from 11.3% neither working nor looking for work in April 1960 to 22.1% as of April of this year.

The share of U.S.-born working age men sitting out of the labor force has nearly doubled since 1960, a new study shows. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

«This is relevant to the immigration debate because one of the arguments for allowing in so many legal immigrants, or even tolerating illegal immigration, is that there are not enough workers,» CIS said in a blog post detailing its findings. «But this ignores the enormous increase in the number of working-age people not in the labor force.

»Further, being out of the labor force is associated with profound social problems such as crime, overdose deaths, and welfare dependency," the authors wrote. «Policy-makers should consider encouraging work among the millions on the economic sidelines rather than ignoring the problem by bringing in ever more immigrants.»

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The report said the total number of U.S.-born men and women of working age who are not in the labor force was 43 million as of April 2024, which is an increase of