MPI Data Hub Graph

Unemployment Rates by Selected Demographic Characteristics, January 2000 to August 2009
(not seasonally adjusted)

Notes: Estimates are based on a three-month moving average. The "Mexico and Central America" category includes foreign born from Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama. "Foreign born" refers to people residing in the United States who were not US citizens at birth. The foreign-born population includes naturalized citizens, legal permanent residents, certain legal non-immigrants (e.g., refugees and persons on student or work visas), and persons illegally residing in the United States. The "Black/African American" category includes both native and foreign-born persons.

Source: Migration Policy Institute analysis of US Census Bureau's Basic Current Population Survey, January 2000 to August 2009.

Further reading:
Immigrants and the Current Economic Crisis
By Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Aaron Terrazas
As the nation sinks into a recession that may be the worst since the Great Depression, the economic crisis raises fundamental questions about future immigration flows to and from the United States and how current and prospective immigrants will fare. This report, a research product of MPI's new Labor Markets Initiative, examines how the number of immigrants has changed since the recession began; how legal and illegal immigration flows may change; and how immigrants fare in the labor market during downturns.