If all undocumented workers disappeared from the state and all the officially unemployed people took their jobs, employers in Colorado would still come up short.
The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that between 225,000 and 275,000 unauthorized immigrants lived in Colorado in March 2005. Just under two-thirds of them – between 146,000 and 178,000 – are estimated to be in the workforce.
“Immigration goes up, documented and undocumented, when the economy is strong,” said Gabriela Flora, an organizer for the American Friends Service Committee in Denver.
In mid-March, 111,600 people were actively looking for work in the state, adjusting for seasonal variations, according to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. That translates into a 4.3 percent unemployment rate among a labor force of 2.6 million people.
If all the undocumented workers left and the unemployed took their jobs, another 34,400 to 66,400 workers would be needed in Colorado, if the Pew estimates are correct.
Colorado likely would attract workers from other states to replace those born in other countries, said Joseph Winter, a senior labor economist with the state.
Discouraged workers who have stopped looking for work, retirees, college students and other groups not counted in the state’s unemployment tally also could rejoin the workforce.
Higher wages likely would be needed to attract workers to fill the gap, causing employers to eliminate some jobs.
Such a scenario likely won’t happen. But labor economists at best have educated guesses, not hard numbers, on the number and importance of undocumented workers.
“If I have undocumented workers who aren’t acknowledged by the census, they aren’t in my big (labor force) number,” Winter said.
The U.S. Census Bureau, through its monthly Current Population Survey, queries about 60,000 households on employment status. That survey is used to determine the size of the labor force and the number of unemployed.
Because immigration status isn’t a question the monthly surveys tracks, the importance of undocumented workers can’t be pinpointed precisely.
“They may not all be showing up, but they all aren’t excluded,” Flora said.
Staff writer Aldo Svaldi can be reached at 303-820-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com.
