VOX  CEPR Policy Portal

Though skilled immigration is of great importance to the US, no consensus has been reached in the public discourse about its effects on citizen workers and economic growth. This column looks at a different perspective of this relationship. It explores the effect of skilled immigrants on the employment structures of US firms using employer-employee data. The results show the total skilled employment by the firm increases with increases in skilled immigrant employment. However, the employment expansion is greater for younger natives than for their older counterparts.