The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is a U.S territory in the Pacific. Its workforce has changed substantially since 2000, and its tourism-based economy was hit hard by COVID-19. We reviewed trends in its workforce and wage distribution and found:

• The number of foreign workers fell 73% from 2001-2020
• U.S. workers were about half of the workforce in 2016 but 59% in 2020, in part due to a 2019 law that allowed foreign workers with employment visas to become long-term U.S. residents
• An annual study showed the number of workers earning less than $8 an hour declined 68% from 2019-2021 due to COVID-19 and lower study participation

Closed and Unfinished Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Casino and Resort

What GAO Found

The federal government controls immigration for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), including administration of a foreign worker permit program that is specific to the CNMI. Under this program, the ratio of U.S. to foreign workers in the CNMI remained close to 50 percent from 2016 through 2018. U.S. workers increased to 56 percent in 2019 and 59 percent in 2020, partly because the CNMI government identified persons lawfully admitted for permanent residence (LPRs) in the total of U.S. workers. The size of the overall workforce grew from 2016 to 2017 before contracting by about 2,000 workers in 2018, and dropped by more than 5,000 workers from 2016 to 2020. The Department of Homeland Security approved about 11,600...

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