Immigrant Latino Workers and the Recession

A small but significant decline has occurred during the current recession in the share of Latino immigrants active in the U.S. labor force, according to a new analysis of Census Bureau data by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center. Workers who are employed or looking for work are said to be active in the labor market. The proportion of working-age Latino immigrants active in the labor force has fallen, at least through the third quarter of 2008, while the proportion of all non-Hispanics as well as of native-born Hispanics has held steady. Among Hispanic immigrants, the decrease is sharpest among those from Mexico and those who arrived in the U.S. since 2000. Also, the increase in the number of foreign-born Latinos in the labor force is much smaller than previous years. The labor market data do not paint an unrelentingly negative picture for Hispanic immigrants. The estimated increase in their unemployment rate is not as high as the increase for native-born Hispanic workers. Also, median weekly wages fell for native-born Hispanics but not for foreign-born workers. These developments, however, could be an artifact, a consequence of the likely withdrawal of low-wage foreign-born Hispanics from the labor force. The report, "Latino Workers in the Ongoing Recession: 2007 to 2008," authored by Rakesh Kochhar, Associate Director for Research, is available at the Pew Hispanic Center's website, www.pewhispanic.org.

The Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center, is a nonpartisan, non-advocacy research organization based in Washington, D.C. and is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts.