According to a study published by the Economic Policy Institute, Latino unemployment in California reached 15.7 percent during the second quarter of 2008, exceeding the unemployment rate of African Americans (15.3 percent) for the first time since the recession began.
The study expects Latino unemployment rate to grow to as high as 18 percent in a year. Part of the increase can be explained by the specific industries that have been hardest hit in California. “One thing that is driving the Hispanic unemployment rate,” according to the study’s author, “is the collapse of the housing market, which means the collapse of construction. That has been a big factor.”
In the rest of the country, African American unemployment continues to be higher than that of Latinos, but the jobless rate in the Latino community is rising faster than other minorities.
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