Undocumented immigrants are increasingly getting white-collar jobs as lower-skilled industries let more workers go, according to a report released Thursday.

In the years since the global recession slammed the U.S. economy - from 2007 to 2012 - construction and production jobs for undocumented immigrants fell by 475,000, according to the report from the Pew Research Center. At the same time, undocumented immigrants gained 180,000 management and professional jobs, the study showed.

"Despite these shifts, unauthorized immigrant workers remain concentrated in lower-skill jobs, much more so than U.S.-born workers," Pew concluded.

The report, which was based on government employment data from 2012, found that undocumented immigrants continue to be concentrated in the low-skilled workforce in the USA.

While undocumented immigrants account for 5% of the overall workforce, they represent 26% of employees in the farming, fishing and forestry industries; 17% of the cleaning and maintenance industries; 14% of the construction and extraction industries; and 11% of the food preparation and serving industries.

While undocumented immigrants saw net job gains in white-collar jobs, such as management, professional and office support occupations, they remained only 2% of the workers in those industries.

That profile means undocumented immigrants were also the hardest hit when the American recession struck, with undocumented immigrants more likely to be let go than U.S.-born workers. Overall, their share of the U.S. workforce fell from 5.4% in 2007 to 5.1% in 2012.

In 2007, undocumented immigrants made up 16% of construction workers. By 2012, that fell to 14%. Their share of the production workforce, including assemblers, food processors and machinists, fell from 10% in 2007 to 9% in 2012. Their share of service-industry jobs also fell from 10% in 2007 to 9% in 2012.

Other findings in the report:

? While the overall size of the undocumented immigrant population fell from 12.2 million in 2007 to 11.2 million in 2012, the number of undocumented immigrants in the labor force rose from 8.1 million to 8.3 million.

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Report: Undocumented getting more white-collar jobs