Hispanic unemployment rises as construction slumps
Jun 4 2008 12:56PM EDT
As the construction industry has slumped, the unemployment rate among Hispanic immigrants has climbed, an analysis released Wednesday shows.
For the first time in five years, foreign-born Hispanics have a higher unemployment rate than do Hispanics born in the U.S., according to the Pew Hispanic Center's analysis of census and Labor Department data.
The unemployment rate for Hispanic immigrants was 7.5 percent during the first months of this year, compared with 6.9 percent among native-born Hispanics. During the same period in 2007, the rates were 5.5 percent and 6.7 percent, respectively.
"The unemployment rate has shot up because of the slump in construction and Hispanic workers had done very well finding jobs in the construction industry as it was booming," said Rakesh Kochhar, associate director for research. "Having become somewhat dependent on this industry, they were more vulnerable to the downturn."
An overwhelming majority of jobs lost in the construction industry were held by foreign-born Hispanics.
Mexican immigrants have been hardest hit; their unemployment rate jumped from 5.5 percent last year to 8.4 percent. The employment downturn added about 255,000 Hispanic immigrants, most of whom are Mexican, to the ranks of the unemployed.
Foreign-born Hispanics could have entered the country legally or illegally. The report does not divide the immigrant numbers along those lines although undocumented workers can be found in the construction industry. For that reason, stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws also has played a role in the job losses, Rakesh said.
"The workers were in the wrong sector, the wrong segment of that sector and in many cases the wrong place at the wrong time," said Michael Fix, vice president of the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think tank that studies immigration issues.
Hispanic immigrants not only worked in construction, but largely in home construction, which is suffering a slowdown more so than commercial construction, a sector with more unionized workers.
Hispanic immigrants have continued to look for work after they lost their jobs, being counted as unemployed rather than as out of the job market.
But fewer immigrants of working age are joining the U.S. job market. The economic slump and increased enforcement are likely contributing to the shrinking numbers of new workers, Rakesh said.
Much of the decline for Hispanic immigrant workers appears to be among Central and South American immigrants. That suggests increased the Mexican government's own immigration enforcement on its southern border is deterring immigrants from traversing the country to find work in the U.S., Rakesh said.
Unemployment rates for non-Hispanics are lower than for Hispanics overall, 4.7 percent versus 6.5 percent in the first three months of this year.
Rakesh said U.S.-born Hispanics have more variety in job occupations and are less concentrated in the construction industry. Lower education levels compared with their non-Hispanic counterparts contribute to their higher unemployment rates, he said.
