Governor Rick Perry is on the campaign trail and will debate tonight. He will bring up that Texas has created more jobs than anywhere else. So who exactly is working these jobs? According to one study, immigrants. According to the Washington Examiner:

"Of jobs created in Texas since 2007, 81 percent were taken by newly arrived immigrant workers (legal and illegal)," says the report from the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that advocates reduced levels of both legal and illegal immigration.  The report estimates that about 40 percent of the new jobs were taken by illegal immigrants, while 40 percent were taken by legal immigrants.  The vast majority of both groups, legal and illegal, were not American citizens.

Native-born Americans filled just 20 percent of the new jobs in Texas, the report says, even though "the native born accounted for 69 percent of the growth in Texas' working-age population." "Thus, even though natives made up most of the growth in potential workers, most of the job growth went to immigrants," the report concludes.

The report is based on analysis of the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey.

The study notes that 56 percent of newly-arrived immigrants in Texas since 2007 have had a high-school degree or less.  But it also notes that "More than one out three…of newly arrived immigrants who took a job had at least some college."  It would be a mistake, the report concludes, "to assume that immigrants are only competing for jobs at the bottom end of the labor market."

A press release with the released data tries to paint Perry's jobs record as shady:

As Republicans go through the process of selecting their party’s nominee, job growth in Texas during the current economic downturn has been the subject of much discussion. GOP frontrunner Perry has argued that he has a proven record of job creation in his state, even during the current economic downturn. It is true that Texas is one of the only states where the number of people working has increased during the recession. What has not been acknowledged is that immigrants have been the primary beneficiaries of this job growth, not native-born Americans. About 40 percent job growth went to newly arrived illegal immigrants and another 40 percent to new legal immigrants.

Thoughts?

 

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