Possibly one of the most prevalent claims from the political left is that western economies "need illegals" in order to support the dragging economy and fill a hungry labor market. An extension of this idea is that many of these migrants are "skilled workers" that the west desperately needs for vital roles. 

But how much do the US and Europe really need illegal immigrants in order to keep western economies going?  And how many of them actually bring important skills to western labor markets?  Would they be sunk without these people?  Or, would they be much better off?

First and foremost it should be noted that in the US there is ample evidence to show that the Biden Administration has been engaging in statistical manipulation for the last four years, and this includes labor statistics.  While there was indeed a clear shortage of workers in the service sector during covid lockdowns (and the helicopter money supplied by covid stimulus and PPP loans), recent revisions to BLS numbers have cut at least 819,000 jobs from the books that Biden originally took credit for.  In other words, those jobs never existed.

It was these same jobs numbers that were used by the Democrats to argue in favor of open borders; asserting that without illegals this explosion in labor demand would turn into a worker shortage crisis.  While specific job sector stats (job categories) don't usually distinguish between legal and illegal migrants, there is little evidence to indicate they fill an important role in our society.

In America, migrants flood into the low-skill service sector and health services sector.  In many cases this involves entry level nursing home care and similar employment.  The other category in which they usually work is construction.  They offer cheap labor for home building, but this has certainly not translated to lower housing costs.