Guess where many Latino jobs are were concentrated? Yup.

And while many Latinos have found work in the recovering lower wage category, these jobs don’t drive economic growth – or provide a bright future for a growing community.

Multi-generation Latinos have a lot at stake in the current battle to curtail the power of public sector unions. Latinos disproportionately represent low-wage jobs and have relied heavily on the efforts of unions to negotiate fair wages and benefits. If the power of unions is severely curtailed, many Latinos may be left without this protection. This vulnerability for Latinos is confounded by the fact that they are one of the least likely groups to obtain a higher education (U.S. Dept. of Education 2010). Unions play an even greater role in diminishing wage inequalities for workers without college degrees (Agbede 2011).

This is particularly disheartening for low-income students – they’re literally getting priced out of college. I understand the rising costs are caused by numerous factors including budget cuts, infrastructure, salaries, etc. However, for whatever the reasons, the fewer people have access to higher education the more our workforce will suffer.  

Field of study obviously impacts long-term earnings of college graduates with science and technology majors earning more than social science and humanities majors. Another key finding is not a surprise: women’s wages are lower than those of men. The same can be said of other minorities including Latinos:

Hispanics earn the most with a major in Mechanical Engineering ($70,000 median). However, the median for Hispanics is$13,000 less than the median for Whites with the same major.

Hispanics earn the least in Theology and Religious Vocation majors with median earnings of $30,000, which is less than the White and African-American medians in this field.

For most people considering law school, this question is hardly an easy one. Law schools, however, make it much harder than it needs to be by publishing misleading data about their employment statistics. Many law schools all but explicitly promise that, within a few months of graduation, practically all their graduates will obtain jobs as lawyers, by trumpeting employment figures of 95 percent, 97 percent, and even 99.8 percent. The truth is that less than half will.

 Latinos today are the fastest growing group in the nation. From 1970 to 2008 the Latino population grew by 417% compared to 49.6% for the general population. With a median age of 27.4 years Latinos are also the youngest in our population. 15 states account for 86.5% of the total Latino population. In 2010, over one-third of the total Latino population was under the age of 18. There are 22.4 million Latinos in the labor force (including employed and unemployed workers). By 2050, Latinos will constitute nearly 30% of the total US population and one third of all working-age Americans. As people age, Latinos are providing an important source of renewal for communities in decline.