Low skill native-born Americans are dropping out of the workforce in record numbers, and those jobs are being filled with immigrants under an unspoken practice by government and business leaders eager for cheaper labor instead of helping get Americans back to work, according to a new study.

Federal data analyzed by the Center for Immigration Studies found that since 1994, when separate immigrant and native employment estimates first became available, the percentage of native-born high school dropouts not in the labor force rose from 26 percent to 35 percent. The percentage of immigrant dropouts not in the labor force decreased to a low mark of 8 percent.



Ditto for hours and weeks worked, said CIS. The report released early Tuesday said:

— Native-born high school dropouts worked an average of 1,391 hours (the equivalent of about 35 full-time weeks) per year between 2003 and 2015, while immigrant dropouts worked 1,955 hours (or 49 full-time weeks) per year.

— Native-born dropouts have seen their work time decline from 41 equivalent full-time weeks in the 2003- 2005 period to 32 weeks in 2012-2015, while immigrant dropouts declined only from 52 weeks to 50 weeks.

— While natives fell from 56 percent of the nation's high school dropouts to 52 percent, their share of the labor performed by all dropouts declined much faster — from 50 percent in the 2003-2005 period to 40 percent in 2012-2015.

— Among men with more than a high school degree, there are no significant differences in work time between immigrants and natives.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center, said, "Low-skill American men have been dropping out of the labor force at the same time that low-skill immigrants are finding plenty of work. Whatever its other effects, mass immigration serves to paper over this serious social problem, reducing the incentive for employers and policymakers to explore and address its underlying causes."

The report doesn't conclude that immigrants are pushing native-born Americans out of jobs, but does note that the administration has been cheering the changes instead of working to get native-borns back to work.

"Instead of searching for ways to get natives back to work — whether through higher wages, less access to welfare, social pressure, or some other means — government and business leaders have brought in immigrants to do the work instead," said the report.

"The White House has openly touted this replacement: 'Immigration reform would raise the overall participation rate by bringing in new workers of prime working age, offsetting some of the macroeconomic challenges associated with the long-run decline in prime-age male participation,'" it added.

CIS concluded, "In other words, immigration is a substitute for addressing the real problem. Imagine how the focus of politicians and businessmen would change if there were no supply of new immigrants to harvest their vegetables, weed their gardens, or hang their drywall. They would likely take a much greater interest in getting idle American men back to work."

Conservative critics of rampant immigration, such as Sen. Jeff Sessions, has argued that Americans are being losing jobs to immigrants, especially due to government programs that promote the hiring of cheaper immigrant labor.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com