US industries with the highest number of immigrant workers

By Dat Nguyen March 27, 2025 | 07:06 pm PT

Educational and health services sector employs the most immigrants in the U.S. at 5.5 million, equivalent to 18.4% of all foreign-born employees.

In the second place is professional and business services with 4.7 million (15.8%) and construction with 3.3 million (11.1%), according to a recent report by USAFacts, an organization which analyzes government data. The figures used in the report were updated as of 2023.

Sectors with the least number of immigrant workers are mining (74,000), information (415,000) and agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (439,000).

But the share of foreign-born workers in each industry paints a different picture.

Construction has the highest ratio of immigrant workers at 28.6%, meaning that 71.4% were native.

The foreign-born ratio for professional and business services sector is at 22.9%, while other services sector comes third at 21.9%.

Between 2010 and 2023, the share of immigrant employees rose in most industries.

The most notable growth was seen in transportation and utilities, professional and business services, and construction, all of which saw the size of their foreign-born workforces increase by at least 5 percentage points.

Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and leisure and hospitality were the only two industries with declines.

As of June last year, immigrants made up over 19% of the US workforce – over 32 million out of a total of 169 million.

Almost half of the immigrant population are Hispanic while a quarter are Asian.