Immigrant labor loss reshapes farming, construction and health care

Preliminary government data analyzed by researchers shows more than 1.2 million immigrants disappeared from the U.S. labor force between January and the end of July, a shift experts say is reshaping work in farming, construction and health care as increased immigration enforcement unfolds under the administration of President Donald Trump. The decline is evident in communities from California’s Central Valley to the Rio Grande Valley, where farmworkers and employers report labor shortages and disruption of seasonal harvests.

The Census Bureau figures, analyzed by the Pew Research Center, cover both people in the country illegally and legal residents and suggest immigrants now comprise almost 20 percent of the U.S. workforce. Pew senior researcher Stephanie Kramer said the preliminary data show immigrants account for about 45 percent of workers in farming, fishing and forestry, about 30 percent of construction workers and roughly 24 percent of workers in the service sector. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has produced similar estimates of a roughly 1.2 million drop in foreign-born participation over the same period.

Researchers and local advocates caution that the causes of the...