immigrants return to work faster; allow wages to drop faster

From the AP's Susan Gamboa (hat tip: C-J)...

Two sides of the same coin. Markets adjust from "surplus" (unemployment in labor markets) with renewed demand (hasn't happened much) and reductions in wages/compensation. If wages are slow to fall (as they can be in labor markets), then unemployment can persist.

Unemployment insurance (UI) increases a tendency toward (longer-term) unemployment, by subsidizing those in that state. Immigrants are probably less likely to take UI and apparently, have a stronger work ethic.

Immigrants are returning to work quicker than their U.S.-born counterparts, but are earning significantly less than before the economic downturn, a Pew Hispanic Center study reported Friday.

Immigrants in the U.S. have gained 656,000 jobs since the Great Recession ended in June 2009. By comparison, U.S.-born workers lost 1.2 million jobs. The unemployment rate for immigrants fell over the same period to 8.7 percent from 9.3 percent. For American-born workers, the jobless rate rose to 9.7 percent from 9.2 percent....

The study said immigrant wages fell sharply in the last year, and that Latinos experienced the largest wage drop of any group. From 2009 to 2010, the median weekly earnings of foreign-born workers fell 4.5 percent compared to a loss of less than 1 percent for U.S.-born workers....

The center said the reasons immigrant unemployment is decreasing are unclear. But foreign-born workers are more mobile, they exit and enter the labor market more frequently, and are less likely to get unemployment benefits - so they may have to find jobs sooner, even if the jobs they are taking are worse...