Immigrants Are No Longer the Biggest Share of the Latino Labor Force

A Pew study shows 49.7 percent of the employed Latino workers were immigrants in 2013.

Less than half of Latino workers in the United States are immigrants, according to a study released Thursday.

Foreign-born workers no longer account for the majority of Latino workers in the U.S., a Pew Research study released Thursday showed.

In 2013, 49.7 percent of the more than 22 million employed Latino workers were immigrants, down from a pre-recession high of 56.1 in 2007. The first part of 2014 also points to ongoing decline and underscores the changing demographics of the U.S. labor force, says Rakesh Kochhar, an associate director of research for the Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project and author of the report.

 “The narrative of the change in the U.S. workforce seems to be in flux,” Kochhar says. “In the past 10 to 15 years most of the growth in U.S. labor force was driven by Latinos, which in part was driven by foreign-born workers. Currently and looking into near future, you’re looking at U.S. labor force overall growing through U.S. born Latinos and Asian immigrants as opposed to Hispanic immigrants.” Half of all Latino workers are employed in just four industries: construction; eating, drinking and lodging services; wholesale and retail trade; and professional and other business services. Within the construction sector, Latinos lost 686,000 jobs during the recession and regained only 74,000, the report showed. But in the remaining three sectors, which accounted for 45.5 of job growth for Latinos from 2009 to 2013, Latinos gained 236,000 during the recession and 1.3 million during the recovery.

For U.S.-born Latinos, the jobless rate was 10.3 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, the report showed, which is well below the national rate of 6.3 percent, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S.-born Latino jobless rates are down from the 13.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 but still above the 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007. Some of this decline, however, could be attributed to discouraged workers leaving the workforce and therefore no longer counted among the unemployed, according to the report.

For Latino immigrants, the jobless rate was 7.2 percent at the end of 2013, still above its pre-recession level of 5.2 percent in 2007.

The incomes of U.S.-born Latinos are higher than those of immigrants, and for all Latino workers, the median weekly wage in the last quarter of 2013 was $570, up from $556 during the last part of 2007.

The report calls to mind the economic impact of immigrants on the U.S. economy. A June 2013 Congressional Budget Report showed that such reform would increase the size of the labor force and provide long-term benefits to economic growth in the U.S. It would decrease federal budget deficits by $197 billion over the 2014 to 2023 period and by about $700 billion over the 2024 to 2033 period. The report also said reform would increase the gross domestic product by 3.3 percent in 2023 and by 5.4 percent in 2033. 

Reference: Katherine Peralta June 19, 2014 | 2:00 p.m. latino.foxnews.com
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