Native-born American men have been fleeing the workforce in droves in a decades-long trend that coincides with a rise in immigration, according to a new analysis sounding the alarm on the issue.
The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) released a study this week showing the share of working-age (16 to 64), U.S.-born men not participating in the labor force has soared since the 1960s, going from 11.3% neither working nor looking for work in April 1960 to 22.1% as of April of this year.
“This is relevant to the immigration debate because one of the arguments for allowing in so many legal immigrants, or even tolerating illegal immigration, is that there are not enough workers,” CIS said in a blog post detailing its findings. “But this ignores the enormous increase in the number of working-age people not in the labor force.
“Further, being out of the labor force is associated with profound social problems such as crime, overdose deaths, and …