There may be a lot of ill-feeling toward immigrants among segments of the general populace, but that's not the case when it comes to employers.
That's according to a CareerBuilder survey which says 33 percent of employers are planning to hire immigrants during the course of the year, and 16 percent planning to bring them in during the second quarter.
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While 35 percent of workers are concerned about the effects of hiring immigrants on the job market for Americans, a whopping 90 percent have no fears about immigrant workers stepping into their own jobs.
When it comes to pay, immigrants get pretty much the same as U.S-born workers, according to employers. Among those who hire immigrants, 80 percent say that both are paid the same rate for working in the same positions, while 12 percent say they pay immigrants less. Nine percent say they pay immigrants more than U.S. workers.
"Immigrant workers continue to play an integral part in the U.S. workforce and economy," Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer for CareerBuilder, says in a statement. Haefner adds, "Half of employers who say they have open positions for which they can't find qualified candidates report they are hiring workers from other countries perhaps to help navigate around the growing skills gap in the U.S., so they can fill increasingly complex and rapidly evolving roles."
And it doesn't seem to matter much what size the companies are. Among those planning to hire immigrants this year, while large companies tend to have more openings and thus more plans to hire, 16 percent of companies with 1–50 employees intend to recruit immigrants; 35 percent of companies with 51–250 employees, 46 percent of companies with 251–500 employees and 42 percent of companies with 501+ employees intend to look outside U.S. borders for new hires.
While the IT industry is still the largest field of opportunity for immigrants, it's by no means the only place they can find work here in the U.S. Fifty percent of IT employers plan to hire immigrants this year, while other opportunity-rich industries include financial services (38 percent); professional and business services (37 percent); manufacturing (30 percent); transportation (30 percent); health care (21 percent); and retail (18 percent).
The kinds of functional positions employers are recruiting for among non-U.S. born workers technical (42 percent); administrative (31 percent); manual labor (31 percent); sales (30 percent); creative (29 percent); financial (25 percent); and managerial (23 percent).
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