Despite much talk this election cycle about unauthorized workers and “illegal” immigrants, a recent study from the Pew Research Center shows that the overall number of unauthorized workers in the U.S. has not risen since the end of the recession in 2009. Instead, the number of unauthorized workers has declined in recent years.

The study, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, found that while the U.S. total workforce grew by approximately 3.5 million between 2009 and 2014, the unauthorized immigrant workforce shrank slightly, by an estimated 100,000. This relative stability comes after a period of rapid growth in the unauthorized immigrant population during the 1990s and early 2000s, which peaked prior to the beginning of the recession in 2007. Currently,  unauthorized immigrants make up approximately 5 percent of the total U.S. labor force, or approximately 8 million workers, and are primarily employed in the agriculture and construction industries. In all sectors, however, U.S-born workers outnumbered unauthorized immigrant workers.  Since then, eight states have experienced significant declines in the number of unauthorized workers in their labor force: Alabama , California, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Nevada, South Carolina and Rhode Island. Although the rhetoric may continue, the available data fails to demonstrate any influx of unauthorized immigrant workers.