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U.S. unemployment rate for foreign-born people unchanged at 4.2 percent in 2025

June 03, 2026

The U.S. unemployment rate for the foreign born was 4.2 percent in 2025, unchanged from the year prior. For the native born, the rate increased by 0.3 percentage point to 4.3 percent over the year.

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Chart Data

Unemployment rates for foreign-born and native-born people 16 years and over by sex, annual averages
Year	Total, foreign-born	Total, native-born	Foreign-born men	Native-born men	Foreign-born women	Native-born women
2005	4.6	5.2	4.1	5.3	5.4	5.0
2006	4.0	4.7	3.5	4.8	4.7	4.6
2007	4.3	4.7	4.1	4.9	4.6	4.5
2008	5.8	5.8	5.7	6.2	6.0	5.3
2009	9.7	9.2	10.0	10.3	9.2	7.9
2010	9.8	9.6	9.9	10.6	9.6	8.5
2011	9.1	8.9	8.8	9.5	9.5	8.3
2012	8.1	8.1	7.5	8.4	8.9	7.7
2013	6.9	7.5	6.4	7.9	7.5	7.0
2014	5.6	6.3	5.0	6.5	6.5	6.0
2015	4.9	5.4	4.5	5.6	5.6	5.1
2016	4.3	5.0	3.8	5.2	5.1	4.7
2017	4.1	4.4	3.6	4.6	4.8	4.2
2018	3.5	4.0	3.0	4.2	4.1	3.8
2019	3.1	3.8	2.7	4.0	3.7	3.6
2020	9.2	7.8	8.0	7.8	10.8	7.9
2021	5.6	5.3	5.1	5.5	6.1	5.0
2022	3.4	3.7	3.3	3.8	3.6	3.6
2023	3.6	3.6	3.5	3.9	3.8	3.4
2024	4.2	4.0	3.8	4.2	4.8	3.7
2025	4.2	4.3	3.9	4.5	4.5	4.1
Note: Annual estimates for 2025 are 11-month averages that exclude October. Data for October 2025 were not collected due to the federal government shutdown.

In 2025, the unemployment rates for both foreign-born men (3.9 percent) and foreign-born women (4.5 percent) changed little from the previous year. The jobless rates for native-born men and women increased to 4.5 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively. The rate for native-born women remained lower than that for their foreign-born counterparts (4.1 percent versus 4.5 percent). Conversely, native-born men were more likely to be unemployed than foreign-born men (4.5 percent versus 3.9 percent).

These data from the Current Population Survey are estimates of the civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and over. See "Foreign-Born Workers: Labor Force Characteristics — 2025" to learn more. The foreign born are U.S. residents born outside the country or one of its outlying areas to parents who were not U.S. citizens. The foreign born include legally admitted immigrants, refugees, temporary residents such as students and temporary workers, and undocumented immigrants. The native born are people born in the United States or one of its outlying areas, such as Puerto Rico or Guam, or who were born abroad of at least one parent who was a U.S. citizen.

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Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, U.S. unemployment rate for foreign-born people unchanged at 4.2 percent in 2025 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2026/u-s-unemployment-rate-for-foreign-born-people-unchanged-at-4-2-percent-in-2025.htm (visited June 05, 2026).

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