The numbers behind the U.S.—Mexico Migration Talks”

Available estimates of the undocumented population are total counts of persons of all ages and any labor force status. However, such estimates provide the best known population level and it is preferable to start with this number in estimating workers. Other approaches, such as imputation, necessarily yield estimates of workers that do not replicate the total population estimate (see Camerota 2001). This short study describes derivations of unauthorized workers by industry beginning from the total counts estimated by Dr. Frank D. Bean et al. (2002). The Pew Hispanic Center (PHC) applied a straightforward imputation process to estimate the industrial distribution of undocumented labor force participants. The process proceeds in two steps: (a) given total unauthorized population counts, estimating the size of the undocumented labor force; and (b) applying a reasonable estimate of the industrial distribution of the undocumented labor force in order to derive absolute counts of the number of undocumented labor force participants by industry