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What sectors rely most on immigrant labor in the US?
Executive summary
Immigrant workers are concentrated in labor‑intensive sectors such as agriculture, construction, hospitality and certain manufacturing and health‑care occupations; estimates show immigrants make up roughly 16–20% of the overall workforce and much larger shares within specific industries (e.g., field and crop work as high as ~73% historically; construction and agriculture have among the highest shares of undocumented workers at ~13–14%) [1] [2] [3]. Different sources emphasize slightly different top sectors — agriculture, construction, food/hospitality, health care, transportation/warehousing, and some professional/technical roles — reflecting variations by data year, whether the focus is all immigrants or only unauthorized workers, and the occupational granularity used [4] [5] [6].
1. Agriculture and food production: the sector most widely cited as reliant on immigrant labor
Multiple reports highlight farming, field and crop work, and related food‑supply roles as heavily dependent on foreign‑born workers: New American Economy and the American Immigration Council reported immigrants making up a very large share of field and crop workers (historically noted as 72.9% for one period) and USDA studies have found high shares of workers lacking authorization in hired crop labor [1] [7] [8]. Pew also estimated that unauthorized immigrants comprised about 17% of the broader agriculture industry in 2014 and as much as 22% in crop production specifically [5]. These figures point to acute sensitivity of the food supply chain to immigrant labor disruptions [8].
2. Construction: concentrated immigrant and undocumented presence, especially in trades
Construction repeatedly appears near the top of lists: immigrants make up a large share of construction trades (one report put immigrants as one in four construction workers and trade‑level shares even higher), and several visualizations and studies single out construction as having the highest concentration of undocumented workers (roughly 13–14% of that workforce in some estimates) [9] [10] [3]. The CMS piece notes foreign‑born workers clustered in construction, transportation and material‑moving occupations, underscoring that many physically demanding roles are disproportionately foreign‑born [6].
3. Hospitality, food service and other service occupations: front‑line roles filled by immigrants
Hospitality (hotels, food service) and related personal‑service occupations are commonly cited among industries with above‑average immigrant shares. Business Insider and Pew data point to leisure and hospitality having higher shares of unauthorized immigrants relative to many other sectors; USAFacts and other overviews list education, health and professional services among industries with notable immigrant concentrations as well, but service and hospitality jobs remain prominent where immigrants dominate lower‑skill, customer‑facing tasks [8] [5] [2].
4. Manufacturing, transportation, and warehousing: sectoral diversity of immigrant roles
Reports note immigrants occupy many roles in manufacturing and in transportation & warehousing, including high‑growth occupations that rely on undocumented workers (CMS identified construction, transportation & warehousing, manufacturing among the industries tied to undocumented workers in fast‑growing occupations) [4] [6]. VisualCapitalist and other analyses also single out manufacturing occupations such as apparel and certain manual production roles where unauthorized workers are concentrated [10] [5].
5. Health care and social assistance: both high numbers and fast‑growing reliance
Health care appears in multiple summaries as a major employer of foreign‑born workers: CMS notes immigrants fill nursing and aide roles (e.g., immigrants accounted for 15.6% of nurses and 28% of health‑care aides in one estimate), and some analyses flag health and social assistance among sectors with growing immigrant employment — a mix of skilled and lower‑skill care roles that the native workforce alone may not easily replace [6] [4].
6. Who counts — and why numbers differ across reports
Different organizations measure different things: some count all foreign‑born workers, some isolate unauthorized/undocumented workers, others focus on particular years or on specific occupations within industries. For example, Pew’s 2014 industry breakdown emphasizes unauthorized‑worker shares in crop production and landscaping [5]; USAFacts reports immigrant concentrations across education, health and professional services as of 2024 [2]; American Immigration Council and New American Economy emphasize very high shares in field/crop work and labor‑intensive roles [1] [7]. These methodological choices explain why lists vary even while the same few sectors recur.
7. Implications and competing narratives
Advocates and some researchers argue that immigrants fill jobs U.S. natives do not want or are in short supply for, helping industries avoid shortages and keeping costs down [7] [1]. Conversely, other analysts and policy critics point to fiscal and labor‑market concerns or emphasize enforcement and legal barriers; those critiques are present in broader reporting but are not uniformly quantified in these sources (available sources do not mention a definitive nationwide economic impact from recent policy changes in every sector). Where sources explicitly model deportation or reduced immigration, they warn of ripple effects in agriculture, construction and hospitality through labor shortages and price pressures [11] [8].
Limitations: the provided sources span different years and methods (surveys, CPS, sectoral studies), so exact percentages vary by industry and time [5] [2] [1]. For policy or local‑level planning, consult the specific studies cited above for their datasets and definitions [4] [6].