Unemployment among Latinos and particularly Latino immigrants jumped in the last year, according to a report released today by the Pew Hispanic Center.
Amid an extended housing market slump, the Pew figures prompted concern among Latino leaders but offered indirect affirmation for immigration enforcement officials about new aggressive enforcement raids.
The report, based on the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau, shows that unemployment among all Latinos is higher than the general population. Among Latino immigrants it is higher still, and within that group, Mexican immigrants and recent arrivals are suffering some of the largest increases in joblessness.
While general unemployment, not seasonally adjusted, rose to 5% in the first quarter of 2008, among Latinos, the figure hit 7.3%. Among Latino immigrants, the jobless rate jumped to 7.5%, while as many as 8.4% of Mexican immigrants are without work. Immigrants who arrived in 2000 or later were hardest hit, with 9.3% jobless in the first quarter of 2008.
"It's striking indeed, especially for foreign workers and the Mexican-born," said Rakesh Kochhar, associate director for research at the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonprofit, non-partisan think tank.
The widening difference between Latino and non-Latino unemployment rates comes after the gap between the two narrowed to a historical low of 0.5 percentage points at the end of 2006. At that time, unemployment rates were 4.9% for Latinos and 4.4% for non-Latinos on a seasonally adjusted basis.
The new figures worried Latino leaders. "These numbers highlight how much the Latino community is being disproportionately affected by the current economic crisis," said Rep. Joe Baca (D-Rialto), leader of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. "The Latino community not only has to contend with our weakened economy, but also with an increasingly negative immigration debate -- neither of which brings good news for Latino unemployment rates."
The Pew report attributes the majority of job losses to the ongoing slump in the construction industry, but Kochhar acknowledged that immigration enforcement efforts may also be a factor.
"Economic downturns tend to reduce immigration flows . . . but we can't point to a cause and effect," he said, adding there may be "a grain of truth" in the correlation.
