Immigrants Comprise 17 percent of US Workforce in 2014

Immigrants made up 17.1 percent of the total US workforce in 2014, or about 27.6 million workers out of 161.4 million, according to a new report by the Pew Research Center.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Immigrants made up about 17 percent of the total US workforce in 2014 with some 5 percent of the workforce entering the United States illegally, according to a new report by the Pew Research Center released on Thursday.

"Immigrants made up 17.1 percent of the total US workforce in 2014, or about 27.6 million workers out of 161.4 million," the report revealed. "12.1 percent of the total workforce were in the US legally…5 percent entered the country without legal permission or overstayed their visas."

The industries with the highest number of immigrants in 2014 were farming, fishing and forestry, with nearly half of the 1.2 million people in those occupations born outside of the United States.

Thirty-five percent of the 6.7 million people in blue collar industries were also immigrants, as were 27 percent of the 8.3 million people in construction jobs, according to the report.

Of the 947,000 people working for private households, 45 percent were immigrants, with legal immigrants slightly outnumbering undocumented immigrants, the report found.

In addition, the report found that immigrants are more likely than US-born workers to be employed as sewing machine operators, plasterers and manicurists.