Bartley Mullohan, general manager of Construction Databases Inc. in Miamisburg, Ohio, says he's seeing fewer immigrants on worksites in Ohio and other parts of the Midwest where his company does business providing pricing information to builders and contractors.

``It seems like there is a definite changing of the guard,'' he said. ``Driving to some job site, six months ago, you would see a lot of Mexicans out framing, doing drywall, interior trim. Now you see fewer of them, and builders have to go back to the traditional workers, the local guys that have always been here.''

Just as government labor statistics don't count many of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants, they miss many independent contractors, whether foreign-born or not