Overview

• The White House reports that native-born workers accounted for all net job gains since January 2025 and that foreign-born employment fell by 543,000.
• The Current Population Survey relies on self-reported figures without external verification, raising the risk that enforcement-driven reluctance leads foreign-born respondents to misstate their nativity.
• Analyses by the American Enterprise Institute and the Center for Immigration Studies show a record 1.3 million drop in the reported foreign-born population aged 16 and over from January to June 2025 alongside a 2.2 million rise in native-born figures.
• Brookings Institution scholars warn that month-to-month CPS data contain technical artifacts that warrant extreme caution when measuring short-term changes in population and employment.
• Observers say these anomalies could temporarily overstate native-born job gains and undercount immigrant employment, affecting assessments of immigration policy outcomes.