MIGRATION AND BUSINESS CYCLES
reached similar conclusions by comparing the occupational statistics
of immigration in the decade 1900 to 1910 with the Census record of
increases in the numbers in the several occupations.
Obviously, the unskilled elements in immigration and the cyclical
variations in the employment of the unskilled worker in American
industry are particularly worthy of attention in studying the relation
of migration to the business cycle.
TABLE 8.—OCCUPATIONS OF IMMIGRANTS AND EMIGRANTS:
Jury 1, 1907, To JUNE 30, 1923
NUMBERS PER CENT OF NUMBER
OccuPATION 2 mn tg DECLARING AN OCCU-
PATION
IMMIGRANTS EMIGRANTS NET? pert emer
inemiGRANTS| EMIGRANTS
TOTAL... or 0,040,740 WES 108, 18 BRIN 6.451.555 Wy.
ALL ocCUPATIONS 6,904,963 2,909,956 3,995,007 100.0 100.0
LABORERS.......... 1,821,038 2,031,444 — 210,406¢ 26.4 69.8
FARM LABORERS. ... 1,733,556 46,163 +1,687,393¢ 25.1 1.6
SKILLED occupa-
TIONS... ..... . 1,517,121 356,515 |+1,160,606 22.0 12.3
PROFESSIONAL ocC-
CUPATIONS.. . ..-| 177,127 43,249 It 133,878 2.6 1.5
OTHER OCCUPATIONS 1,656,121 432,585 +1,223,536 24.0 14.9
WITHOUT 0CCUPA-
TION (INCLUDING
WOMEN AND CHIL-
pREN) ... Ls, 000,777 588,229 42,456,548 oe
sCompiled from the annual reports of the United States Commissioner General of Immigration for the
years 1908 to 1923, inclusive.
bNet = immigrants less emigrants.
¢The apparent excess of emigrant over immigrant laborers is probably caused by a large number of
immigrants declaring their occupation as ‘‘agricultural laborer” on arrival and as ‘laborer’ at departure.
Though the foreign born are found in other industries in con-
siderable numbers, the industries which are particularly worthy of
our attention are factory employment, coal mining, railroad main-
tenance, and construction work. Employment in these industries
is clearly subject to cyclical variations and the immigrant is an
important element in each, both in absolute numbers and in pro-
portion to the native born.
The Volume of Immigration Relative to Population.
The significance of a given volume of immigration becomes more
obvious when it is compared with population. In Table 9 we have
a comparison between the population of the United States at the
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