Latino unemployment rate climbs

Unemployment among Latinos -- particularly immigrants -- jumped in the last year, wiping out many of their economic gains, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Hispanic Center.

The report comes amid an extended housing market and construction slump that has claimed hundreds of thousands of jobs in the U.S. The findings, which alarmed Latino leaders, also indicate that aggressive new enforcement raids by immigration officials may be a contributing factor to the rising rate of joblessness.

Unemployment among Latinos is higher than for the general population, the Pew report showed. For Latino immigrants the rate is even higher -- and within that group, Mexican immigrants and recent arrivals have suffered the largest increases in joblessness.

“It’s striking indeed, especially for foreign workers and the Mexican-born,” said Rakesh Kochhar, associate director for research at the nonprofit Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan think tank.

General unemployment rose to 5% in the first quarter of 2008 on a non-adjusted basis. But for Latinos, the rate reached 7.3%; for Latinos who are immigrants, 7.5%. For Mexican immigrants, the rate rose to 8.4%. Immigrants who came to the U.S. in 2000 or later were hardest hit, with 9.3%.

The jobless gap between Latino and non-Latinos has begun to widen again after narrowing to historic lows. At the end of 2006, the gap had narrowed to 0.5 percentage points, with unemployment rates of 4.9% for Latinos and 4.4% for non-Latinos, on a seasonally adjusted basis.

By the beginning of this year, the gap had grown nearly 2 points, with unemployment rates of 6.5% for Latinos and 4.7% for non-Latinos, on a seasonally adjusted basis. The report is based on the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau.

The rising jobless rate worries 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), head 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 Latino job losses to the slump in the construction industry. But Kochhar acknowledged enforcement raids might be a factor.

“Economic downturns tend to reduce immigration flows . . . but we can’t point to a cause and effect,” he said.

Latinos make up 14.2% of the U.S. labor force, and just over half of working-age Latinos are immigrants, the report said. Although Pew researchers were not able to identify the legal status of those immigrant workers, they estimated that illegal immigrants accounted for 5% of the U.S. labor force.

Most illegal immigrants are from Latin America, and Mexicans account for about 55% of the total, the report said.

Amid a downturn in the construction sector, the report found that 90% of Latino job losses in construction were experienced by immigrants.

And although wages for Latinos fell in all sectors, Latino construction workers experienced the sharpest drop, earning less now than they did in the first quarter of 2006.

Latino women left the labor force in greater proportion and were much more likely to be unemployed than Latino men, the Pew report said. Kochhar said Latino women historically had far lower levels of participation in the workforce than non-Latino women.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said their raids were prompting employers to think twice about hiring illegal immigrants.

“We believe that our enforcement efforts are having an impact,” spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said.

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nicole.gaouette@latimes.com