Latinos land 2 in 3 U.S. construction jobs

[leobold1]

United Press International - NewsTrack - Latinos land 2 in 3 U.S. construction jobs

WASHINGTON, March 7 (UPI) -- Latinos make up 13.6 percent of the U.S. employment population, but accounted for 36.7 percent of the 2006 U.S. employment growth, a study showed Wednesday.

Most of the jobs Hispanic workers landed were in the construction industry, the Pew Hispanic Center said.

In fact, two out of every three new U.S. constriction jobs went to Hispanic workers, the center said.

Hispanic employment increased by almost 1 million from 2005 to 2006, with foreign-born Latinos who arrived since 2000 responsible for about 24 percent of the total U.S. employment increase.

Undocumented immigrants accounted for about two-thirds of the increase in recently arrived Hispanic workers, the center estimated.

The center derived its estimates from Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census Bureau data, it said.

[cato2]

Well we could always ask the construction indusry to stop hiring them, but that will not happen. We could ask that the contruction industry pay equally, but that will not happen. We could even ask the Hispanic owned companies to do that same thing, but not even they will do this.


The vast majority of new jobs for Hispanic workers were in relatively low-skill occupations calling for little other than a high school education. In contrast, non-Hispanic workers secured large increases in employment in higher-skill occupations requiring at least some college education. This polarization contributed to a growing gap in earnings between Hispanic and non-Hispanic workers. The fall in wages for Latinos was greatest among immigrants who arrived in the United States in the past five years. Thus, the new immigrants who are enjoying significant growth in employment are doing so at the expense of lower wages. This trend is, no doubt, exacerbated by their concentration in occupations calling for minimal skills and education. Despite strong demand for immigrant workers, their growing supply and concentration in certain occupations suggests that the newest arrivals are competing with each other in the labor market to their own detriment.

Pew Hispanic Center Report: Latino Labor Report, 2004