1.2M Immigrants Disappear From U.S. Labor Force Under Trump, 50% of job growth in the U.S.

Sep 1, 2025, 09:32 AM EDT

Pia Orrenius, a labor economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said immigrants normally contribute at least 50% of job growth in the U.S.

It’s tomato season and Lidia is harvesting on farms in California’s Central Valley.

She is also anxious. Attention from U.S. Immigration Control and Enforcement could upend her life more than 23 years after she illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border as a teenager.

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More than 1.2 million immigrants disappeared from the labor force from January through the end of July, according to preliminary Census Bureau data analyzed by the Pew Research Center. That includes people who are in the country illegally as well as legal residents.

Immigrants make up almost 20% of the U.S. workforce and that data shows 45% of workers in farming, fishing and forestry are immigrants, according to Pew senior researcher Stephanie Kramer. About 30% of all construction workers are immigrants and 24% of service workers are immigrants, she added.

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https://www.huffpost.com/entry/12-million-immigrants-gone-from-labor-force-under-trump-preliminary-data-shows_n_68b59ba0e4b0ab815a0e5c42