(CNSNews.com) – A new report released by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) shows that the number of immigrants who arrived in the United States – legally and illegally – since 2000 is almost double the number of new jobs created over that same period

(AP Photo)

The report, using government data from December 2014, shows that 18 million immigrants who have arrived in the United States since 2000 are now living here (legal and illegal) and that only 9.8 million jobs were added over those 14 years (2000 -14)

CIS unveiled the report as Congress is considering legislation to increase legal immigration to fill perceived labor shortages, according to the report.

“It is a mistake to think every job taken by an immigrant is a job lost by a native, but it is equally wrong to think that adding this huge number of immigrants has no implications for American workers,” Steven Camarota, co-author of the report and the Center’s director of research, said in a statement about the report.

“If immigration is the great job creator for natives that advocates argue, the record number of new arrivals in the last 14 years should have created a jobs bonanza for natives,” Camarota said. “Instead, job growth did not come close to matching new immigration and natural population increase; and the labor force participation of natives shows a long-term decline, even before the Great Recession.”

(AP Photo)

Other highlights of the report include:

• 89 percent of the 18 million legal and illegal immigrants who are potential workers are 16 and older.



• Legal immigrants account for between two-thirds and three-fourths of the new arrivals.



• In addition to the 18 million new immigrants, the native-born adult population 16 and older grew by 25.2 million since 2000.



• Long-term job growth has not come close to matching new immigration and natural population increase; as a result, the labor force participation rate (the share working or looking for work) of native-born Americans aged 16 to 65 shows significant long-term decline.



• The share of native-born Americans 16 to 65 in the labor force was 77 percent in December 2000, 75 percent in December 2007, and 72 percent in December 2014.



• The number of 16- to 65-year-old natives not in the labor force (neither working nor looking for work) increased by 13 million from December 2000 to December 2014.



• During the period after the Great Recession began, 7.8 million new immigrants arrived from 2008 to 2014, yet net job growth was just two million.



• During the period before the Great Recession, from January 2000 to December 2007, 11.1 million immigrants arrived and job growth was still only 7.3 million.