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Latino Jobless Rate Grows Fastest

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The Washington Post

Published: June 5, 2008

WASHINGTON - The unemployment rate among Latinos is rising faster than the rate for all other workers in the United States, as the steep decline in the construction industry eliminates hundreds of thousands of jobs, according to a national study released Wednesday.
Latino workers have lost nearly 250,000 jobs in the construction industry during the past year, with Hispanic immigrants getting hit hardest, the report by the Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center said.
Joblessness among Latino immigrants rose to 7.5 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2008, compared with 6.5 percent for all Latinos and 4.7 percent for all other workers in the United States. The rise in unemployment for Hispanic immigrants also marked the first time since 2003 that foreign-born Latinos had a higher unemployment rate than that of native-born Latinos, the report said.

Despite the decline in construction taking a disproportionate toll on Hispanic immigrants, they did not appear to be returning home in significant numbers. The unemployed instead are seeking other work in the United States, the report said.

"For now, at least, we do not find any signs that they are discouraged enough to go back home," said Rakesh Kochhar, associate director of research at the Pew Hispanic Center and author of the report. "They are remaining active."

With the overall economic downturn, the unemployment rate has risen for all groups. Blacks continued to have the highest unemployment rate, at 9 percent by the end of the first quarter compared with 8.3 percent in the first quarter of 2007, according to government data. In the same time period, unemployment for whites rose to 4.4 percent from 4.1 percent, and for Asians, to 3.3 percent from 3.1 percent.
Latinos had been big beneficiaries of the construction boom, finding work in the building industry through the last recession earlier this decade. The construction boom was a key reason the unemployment rate among Hispanics hit an all-time quarterly low of 4.9 percent at the end of 2006, even as home-building began to falter.

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