Two months ago, LatinTRENDS reported on how the unemployment rate for Latinos were dropping. And now, after the month of November it appears the unemployment rate is still declining for the Latino community.
“The news is good across the board,” said Department of Labor Secretary Thomas Perez when talking about the overall U.S. unemployment rate. “Growth has been strong in middle and high-wage industries over the last two years, and November saw particularly strong growth in professional and business services jobs. Auto sales are surging. Consumer confidence continues to grow. Americans are bullish about our economic future. By nearly every measure, we are in better shape than when President Obama took office nearly six years ago.”
While it’s good that things are turning—slowly turning—around, Latinos are seen as the one group that’s continuing to progress when it comes to finding employment in this country.
Based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the rate of unemployment for Latinos is 6.6% which has dropped 0.2 percent from October where the rate was 6.8%. Among the overall U.S. unemployment rate the unemployment rate has been unchanged for November remaining at 5.8%. The data released from the BLS also shows that the participation rate of Latinos within labor force stands at 66.5% which is a 0.2% increase from October.
According to their monthly Latino Employment Report published by National Council of La Raza (NCLR), during November Latinos gained jobs in the following sectors: for retail 50,200 jobs, for administrative and waste services 41,700 jobs, for accommodation and food services 27,300 jobs, and for construction 20,000.
In comparison to November 2013, the Latino unemployment rate declined by two percentage points, or from 8.6 percent.
Within the civilian labor force, Latinos are said to make up 25.8 million. In comparison, the number of Latinos within the civilian labor force is the same figure for employed and unemployed people.
Sadly, the decline in unemployment is seen by one group rather than the other. Among Latinos, males are estimated to be more employed than Latinas. Latinas have a higher unemployment rate at 6.4%, however the figure has declined 7% since October while the rate for men has increased from October which was 5.1%.
According to the NCLR, there are 1.7 million Latinos who are unemployed and said to be unemployed Latinos who “are available to work, make an effort to find a job, or expect to be called back from a layoff but are not working.”
Among Latinos aged between 16-to-19-year-olds the unemployment declined from October and stands at 16.3% with an estimated 928,000 Latinos teen employed.
And the unemployment rate for Latinos is expected to continue to decline. After President Barack Obama revealed his executive action regarding immigration in this country, the Latino presence within the workforce is expected to grow.
According to NCLR’s monthly employment report, Latino U.S. born workers will undoubtedly benefit from the president’s executive actions due to the potential of earning higher wages and higher productivity since once ineligible undocumented immigrants will or may be eligible to apply for work authorization permits.
Also, the executive action could see to tax contributions being increased by $2.87 billion during the first year of the executive actions is placed into effect. And over the next five years they could increase to $21.24 billion.
So far, the end of 2014 is starting to look up for Latinos. Let’s hope it continues into 2015.
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