New research from New American Economy shows that immigrants held 16.9 percent of all spending power in the Odessa Metro Area. The report, New Americans in Odessa, was prepared in partnership with the Odessa Chamber of Commerce. 

In addition to their financial contributions, which included paying $117.7 million in federal taxes and $56.7 million in state and local taxes, the report highlights how immigrants fill crucial workforce gaps. Although the foreign-born population made up 13.5 percent of the metro area’s overall population, they represented 18.1 percent of its working-age population. 

Immigrants in the Odessa Metro Area also helped strengthen the local job market by helping to preserve or create 1,000 local manufacturing jobs that would have otherwise vanished or moved elsewhere by 2019.

Key Findings: 

• Immigrants play an outsize role in entrepreneurship. Despite making up 13.5 percent of the overall population, immigrants made up 28.2 percent of the entrepreneurs in the metro area in 2019. 
• Immigrants are responsible for a considerable contribution to the social safety net. In 2019, they contributed $72.3 million to Social Security and $19.6 million to Medicare.
• Immigrants are helping the metro area meet its growing labor needs. Immigrants had an outsize impact on key industries vital to the economic stability of Odessa. Despite making up 13.5 percent of the overall population, immigrants accounted for 30.7 percent of construction workers, 21.5 percent of healthcare and social assistance workers, and 20.2 percent of hospitality workers.

The report is based on NAE’s analysis of microdata from 5-year samples of the American Community Survey from 2014 and 2019 and figures refer to the Odessa Metropolitan Area. Click here to read the full report, New Americans in Odessa.

To read the press release, click here.