The Upjohn Institute New Hires Quality Index rose for the second straight month, up 0.3 percent between March and April, to $22.06, its highest level in 11 months. However, hiring volume stalled out and is down 2.8 percent from last year. Population-adjusted hiring rates are down 8.1 percent from their pre-COVID level.
In light of deteriorating economic conditions for foreign-born workers, index creator Brad Hershbein explores hiring trends by nativity in this month's news release.
Foreign-born workers outpaced native-born workers in the NHQI wage index from 2011 through 2022, with gains of 15.1 percent and 4.0 percent, respectively. Since 2023, newly hired foreign-born workers’ earnings power has dropped 5.8 percent while that of native-born workers grew 0.6 percent.
Hiring rates have fallen to record or near-record lows for both groups, with steeper long-term drops for foreign-born workers. Despite these drops, foreign-born workers’ share of the aggregate earnings power among all new hires increased over recent years to an all-time high of above 21 percent in July 2024. It has since slipped to around 20.5 percent.
Read the full analysis or explore the index.