Still an Hourglass?: Immigrant Workers in Middle-Skilled Jobs

This important MPI report challenges the conventional wisdom about the immigrant workforce, using a sophisticated new method of analysis that permits deeper examination of how workers – immigrant and native-born – fare by economic sector, the skill level of their jobs, and educational attainment. The report, developed with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, offers detailed findings for the economy as a whole and within key sectors (health care, information technology, construction, and hospitality), tracing workers’ progress in the labor market into the recession. The findings hold significant policy implications for the nation’s work-preparing institutions and for how they can provide workers with the credentials and language skills necessary to obtain jobs that pay family-sustaining wages.