JD Vance questions rise in migrant workers as American-born jobs decrease

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance called into question the rise in migrant workers as the number of American-born workers fell, according to Friday’s jobs report.

Native-born Americans lost 1.21 million jobs while foreign-born employment increased by 1.27 million over the past 12 months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“How does it help working-class families in our country to have an economy that benefits the foreign-born more than native-born American citizens?” Vance wrote on social media platform X, formerly Twitter. “Maybe the media should ask [Vice President] Kamala Harris about this?”

While the added jobs for foreign workers can appear in stark contrast to native Americans’ job losses, the unemployment rate actually grew more among foreign workers. From July 2023 to July 2024, the unemployment rate for foreign-born workers went from 3.7 percent to 4.7 percent. For native-born Americans, it grew from 3.8 percent to 4.5 percent.

Still, others have sounded the alarm on the loss of jobs for American-born workers as immigration rates grow.

“We’re just swapping out American workers at this point, not growing the pie for everyone,” conservative organization Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Across the board in July, the unemployment rate was 4.3 percent, a significant increase from 3.5 percent a year earlier. The unemployment rate was also the highest since October 2021. Employers added 114,000 jobs last month, far below the 175,000 economists predicted.

This isn’t the first time conservatives have pushed back against rising immigration rates over concerns about American jobs. In what some characterize as an attempt to get Black voters on his team, Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump has said the uptick in immigrants puts American jobs at risk, specifically jobs once occupied by Black workers.

“Coming from the border are millions and millions of people who happen to be taking Black jobs,” Trump said at a National Association of Black Journalists event in Chicago last week. “They’re taking the employment from Black people.”

The unemployment rate for Black Americans rose by a percentage point since it reached its lowest level of 5.3 percent under the Trump administration.

Newsweek reached out to Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, and Vance by email for comment.

Not everyone believes Vance’s comments are a helpful way to view the current jobs situation.

Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor, said the issue with comments like Vance’s is that they cause political divide rather than offering explanations or solutions.

“Over the last decade, employers have increasingly invested in facilities and jobs in states with fewer taxes and lower costs,” Beene told Newsweek. “Consequently, many have faced employment issues, as the workforce in these states fail to have the education needed for the positions being offered.

“The result is more immigrants gaining employment, especially when they have or are willing to obtain the education needed for these roles. The question is not ‘why are more immigrants getting these jobs?’ but ‘how can we have a better educational infrastructure for those born in America where they can be competitive in the workplace?'”

Another finance expert, Kevin Thompson, CEO and founder of 9i Capital Group, said this is “how our capitalist system works.”

“You want to source the lower cost of inputs that produce the highest gross margin,” Thompson told Newsweek. “In layman’s terms, an American will likely have a higher input cost in regard to labor than a foreign-born person, hence bringing down the overall gross margin.”

Unemployment reaching 4.3 percent in July has other economists worried about the possibility of a recession.

“These figures reflect a cooling economy, but whether they’re a definitive warning sign of a recession is way more nuanced,” Michael Ryan, a finance expert and founder of michaelryanmoney.com, told Newsweek.

Ryan said the steady increase over the past four months is concerning and reminds him of the lead-up to the 2008 recession. However, there are some key differences.

“We’re coming off an unusually tight labor market, and some ‘normalization’ was inevitable,” Ryan said. “I’m not convinced we’re heading straight for a recession. The labor force participation rate increase to 62.7 percent is actually a positive sign. It shows people are reentering the job market, which can temporarily inflate unemployment figures.”