Immigrant Latino Workers Hit Hard by Economic Slowdown, Pew Hispanic Center Report Finds

The Pew Hispanic Center today released Latino Labor Report, 2008: Construction Reverses Job Growth for Latinos. Using data through the first quarter of 2008, the report finds the economic downturn having a disproportionate impact on Hispanic workers. From an historic low in late 2006, the unemployment rate for Latinos rose sharply in 2007 and currently stands well above the rate for non-Latinos. Immigrant Hispanics, especially Mexican immigrants and recent arrivals, have been hurt the most by the slump in the construction industry. Weekly earnings for most groups of Hispanic workers, particularly construction workers, also slipped backward in the past year. There are no signs Latino immigrants are leaving the U.S. labor market but they now play a smaller role in the growth of the Hispanic workforce than in recent years. The report is available at the Pew Hispanic Center's website, www.pewhispanic.org. The Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center, is a non-partisan, non-advocacy research organization based in Washington, D.C. and funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts.