Saturday, March 25 2006 11:57 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Houston: The number of illegal immigrants working in the US is rising while more American-born people are facing unemployment, according to a new study.

An influx of immigrants has intensified competition for jobs hurting American-born workers, said the research by the Centre for Immigration Studies, which favours tighter restrictions on immigration.

Based on the data from the US Census, the report by the Washington-based group found that the number of workers born in America who have a high school diploma or less declined from 45.6 million in March 2000 to 42.4 million in March 2005.

In contrast, the number of working immigrants with the same education level increased from 9.4 million to 10.9 million during the same period.

At least half the job growth was fuelled by illegal immigrants, Steve Camarota, the author of the study, said, referring to census and government data.

Camarota said the illegal immigrants are gaining jobs in the competitive low-skilled labour markets that Americans aren't.

"The people taking it on the chin are the people at the bottom." The study comes amidst US President George W Bush's call for civility over immigration debate beginning from next week in Congress. The debate would include ways to address the estimated 11.5 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the country.