The Pew Hispanic Center released a report entitled “Unemployment Rises Sharply among Latino Immigrants in 2008” Unemployment Rises Sharply among Latino Immigrants in 2008″ indicating that the current recession is having a negative impact on the employment of Latinos, more so than other racial and ethnic groups in the first year of the recession. The report is an analysis of the latest Census Bureau data and estimates are presented for the fourth quarters of 2007 and 2008. Unemployment rates for foreign-born Hispanics rose 2.9%, from 5.1% to 8.0%, exceeding the 2.0 percentage point increase in the overall unemployment rate (from 4.6% to 6.6%).
Employment amongst all racial groups, including foreign-born Latinos, fell from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the fourth quarter of 2008. However, the decrease in employment was greatest for foreign-born Latinos – 2.8 percentage points. The employment rates for white, black, and Asian workers fell 1.3, 2.0 and 1.5 percentage points respectively.
Also, due to the lack of labor market activity, a fewer number of Latino immigrants were employed or actively seeking work in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared with a year ago. The labor force participation rate for foreign born Latinos fell from 71.2% to 70.4%.
The report also notes that job losses were most severe in the construction sector, a leading source of job loss for Hispanics. A total of 343,000 Hispanics have lost their jobs in this industry.
Hispanic Pew Center
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