Geographic & Immigrant Outcomes2024n = 2,000,000
2M brain-wasted US immigrants; 29% vs 16% underemployment
Roughly 2 million college-educated immigrants in the US are unemployed or underemployed; underemployment is 29% for foreign-educated immigrants vs 16% for US-born college graduates, costing >$39 billion in annual earnings.
Primary source
Migration Policy Institute, Untapped Talent series
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/topics/brain-waste-credential-recognitionPublished 2024 — sample n = 2,000,000 — compiled by JobCannon Research.
Why this stat matters
This figure belongs to the geographic & immigrant outcomesvertical of JobCannon's ongoing review of hiring, AI, and career-outcome research. We track it because it is one of the few primary-source estimates with a published sample, methodology, or legal record. Cite the original source first; this page exists to make the figure easy to find and link to.
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- Immigrant overqualification +27pp vs native-born (OECD 38 countries)OECD International Migration Outlook 2024 — 2024
- Remote work: 28% of US working days; hybrid workers +13% productive, -33% attrition (Stanford 2023)WFH Research / Bloom, Stanford SIEPR — 2023
- Immigrant overqualification: +25pp vs native-born at same education level (OECD 2023)OECD Settling In 2023: Indicators of Immigrant Integration — 2023
- Non-English names: 11.3% vs 26.8% leadership callbacks (n>12K)Monash Business School / ANU correspondence audit — 2024
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