Immigrants and the Economy: Contribution of Immigrant Workers to the Country’s 25 Largest Metropolitan Areas with a focus on the five largest metro areas in the East

November 30, 2009

In the 25 largest metropolitan areas of the United States, immigrants are contributing to the economy in very close proportion to their share of the population, according to a report released by the Fiscal Policy Institute. The report looks at all immigrants – documented and undocumented, across the economic spectrum.

In the 25 largest metropolitan areas combined – comprising more than half of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, and two thirds of all immigrants – foreign-born workers are responsible for 20 percent of economic output and make up 20 percent of the population. The same basic relationship holds true, with slight variation, for each of the 25 areas, from metro Pittsburgh, where immigrants represent 3 percent of population and 4 percent of GDP, to metro Miami, where immigrants make up 37 percent of the population and 38 percent of GDP. The report for the first time estimates immigrant share of Gross Domestic Product in metro areas, based on wage and salary earnings plus proprietors’ income.

Metropolitan areas with the greatest rise in immigrant share of the labor force also experienced among the fastest economic growth, the report finds. Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston metro areas had the biggest growth in immigrant share of the labor force between 1990 and 2006, and also all had well above average metro area economic growth, while Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Detroit metro areas experienced the slowest increase in immigrant share of the labor force and among the smallest economic growth.

The report shows that immigrants work in all sectors and in all kinds of jobs. In higher-wage occupations, they often have the same earnings as U.S.-born workers. In service occupations, earnings are low for both immigrants and U.S.-born workers. And, in blue-collar jobs, U.S.-born workers can have respectable earnings in the same occupations where immigrants earn substantially less.

To give the fullest picture of metro areas around the country, the report is based on the 2005-2007 American Community survey, and thus pre-dates the current recession. Analysis of 2008 data – the most recent available – shows the same basic relationship between immigrant share of population and immigrant share of GDP.

Metro Area-Specific Findings

* In metro New York, 54 percent of all guards, cleaning and building service workers, 60 percent of dental assistants, health and nursing aides and 54 percent of food service workers are immigrants.

* In metro Washington, D.C., both immigrants and U.S.-born workers in high-end jobs have earnings that are well above the median, though U.S.-born workers are doing considerably better than foreign-born workers.

* Between 1990 and 2006, metro Atlanta experienced the biggest growth in immigrants’ share of the labor force and the fastest growth in its overall economy.

* Nearly half of the labor force in metro Miami is foreign-born, making it the most heavily immigrant workforce of the 25 largest metro areas in the United States.

* Of the five largest metro areas in the East, metro Philadelphia experienced the slowest economic growth and the slowest growth in immigrant workers.