Weathering the Storm? The Great Recession and the Employment Status Transitions of Low-Skill Male Immigrant Workers in the United States1

Abstract

Using matched data from the Current Population Survey from 2005 to 2011 ( n = 5,507), we use multinomial and binary logistic regression models to examine employment transitions related to the Great Recession for five groups of men with less than a high school degree: foreign-born Mexicans, other foreign-born, and US-born whites, blacks, and Latinos. We find that, during the recession, Mexican immigrants were the most likely to remain continuously employed. However, immigrant workers also experienced high levels of involuntary part-time employment during the recession, suggesting that their relative success in remaining employed was not without its costs.