As President Trump reiterates his commitment to crack down on undocumented immigrants, businesses around the country closed on Thursday for a "Day without Immigrants" to highlight the importance of foreign-born workers to the US economy.
Foreign born workers — including legally admitted immigrants, refugees, temporary residents such as students and temporary workers, and undocumented immigrants —make up 16.7% of America's labor force, according to 2015 data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Hispanics and Asians make up almost 3/4 of the country's foreign-born workforce.
Immigrants are particularly heavily represented in some industries — technology, restaurants, agriculture, and construction.
They also are less likely to be unemployed than native workers.
And they earn less. Income-wise, immigrant workers earn 78.8% of what native workers earn due to differences in educational attainment, jobs, and geography. The gap evens out, however, among workers with college degrees.
