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Latinos and the Recession—It’s bleak, but all is not lost

By Carol Amoruso

HAV editor

The jobs picture is grim.  It’s grimmer still, say recent reports, for Latinos, who had been demonstrating a strong and growing presence in the labor force until the U.S. economy tanked late in 2008.  December figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, just out, put Hispanic unemployment at 9.2%, compared to 7.2% for non-Hispanic whites. 

A recent paper, “Examination and Comparison of Hispanic and White Unemployment Rates,” published in the Journal of Business Valuation and Economic Loss Analysis, and co-written by lawyer Angel Reyes and academicians Bradley Ewing, Mark Thompson and James Wetherbe, found that in an economic downturn Hispanics suffer the misfortune of “last hired, first fired,” must endure longer periods of unemployment, and in general face a “riskier” job market than non-Hispanic whites.

Clearly, for Hispanics, construction jobs have been hardest hit, and manufacturing has shown big losses as well.  But Latinos have also lost significant ground in the white collar sector as suggested by empirical data and the Pew Hispanic Center’s finding that native-born Latinos are losing their jobs at a faster rate than immigrants.

With regard to the upper echelons of Hispanic employment, Eral Burks envisions a gradual brightening of the future under the new administration in Washington.  Executive recruiter and founder of Minority Executive Search agency in Cleveland, he’s had his ear to the “headhunting” ground since 1985.  He told the Hispanic-American Village that his last two placements were of Latinos, one of whom now swivels in the CEO’s chair of a mid-sized start-up company.

Now is the time, he advises, for candidates to begin networking so that they will be well situated to take those new, lucrative jobs once the economic upturn comes.  He is also confident that with more minority muscle in Washington, diversity-lagging firms will be impelled to present a fully diverse staff, top to bottom.  “Latinos have really grown,” he remarks, noting the increase in Latino college graduates and how higher education translates to better jobs.

In career hunting or switching, Burks encourages Hispanics to consider industries where Latinos haven’t typically been well represented, naming especially IT, engineering and health care, all of which have either stayed relatively flat or are even demonstrating growth.  In the private and financial sector, he advised Latinos to “look at mid-size companies,” where there’s more opportunity and stability today, although the salary, benefits and prestige may be somewhat lower than with the big blue chips.

I recently had lunch with a Colombian-American friend.  We discussed job losses amongst Hispanics.  Louis Vanegas travels throughout the Latin world and beyond, monitoring working conditions in factories producing goods for the U.S.   He comes from a large family and has deep roots in the community; nevertheless, he chose to relocate with his wife and 2 children from New York to the Boston area in order to further his career. Louis suggested there may be cultural issues at play that partly explain why Latinos are finding themselves over-represented on the unemployment lines. 

He followed up our conversation with an email in which he said some Latinos could be missing out on jobs or advancement because of their unwillingness to relocate, venturing, “Latinos value family and friends much more than they value their work and thus will not seriously consider employment where they will have to sever these relationships.”  Vanegas added that, “It may also be that older Latino immigrants do not want to even consider having to move, as it took them years to get acquainted and adjusted to their new environment when they made a move from their home country to the U.S.”  Eral Burks agreed with his observation, but said this reluctance to relocate has begun to change as better opportunities are presenting themselves. 

Vanegas also sees Hispanics as less likely to use the electronic networking tools vast numbers of non-Hispanic whites use in seeking work, observing that they will first go to friends and family for leads before surfing the web or even consulting the classified ads in the print media.

The Reyes et al report emphasizes the need for Latinos to avoid the “last hired, first fired” pitfall by making special efforts to secure tenure. The authors place the responsibility for doing so on Hispanics themselves.  When asked to relocate or work longer hours, for example, Latinos will have to make uncomfortable decisions that would seem to pit family/culture against advancement and material gain.  (There is a general assumption, voiced by Burks and by Nevear and Eckstein in “HR and the New Hispanic Workforce,” that Latinos are more willing to accept a lower salary in exchange for family-friendly concessions.)

Schooling, including job training, is key to building a secure future--if you can struggle through the present.  Gary Santana, Associate Professor and Counselor at Bluegrass Community and Technical College in Kentucky, where there is a growing Hispanic student body, observed that his students are persevering with their studies, trying to keep their eyes on their preferred career prize, feeling that by the time they’re ready for the workaday world, the recession/depression will have eased.  (He ironically observed that, “Latinos don’t seem to be as affected nor as panicked [by the recession] because they have had it very hard all along, their job situation has always been more precarious and risky so it’s not coming as much as a surprise to them.”)

Rey Hernandez, Diversity Coordinator at Northwest Arkansas Community College, visits schools in his area under the aegis of the advocacy organization, LULAC, to interest Latino students in becoming teachers on the grade school and higher ed level.  Training Latino teachers is imperative in areas of emerging Hispanic populations where they had no teachers like them as inspirations, he says, lamenting,  “There are no role models for the kids.  They don’t see teaching as a career because they didn’t see anybody in that role in their life.  They see Quiñones on TV and that’s what they want to be,” alluding to the fantasy of easily attainable fame and fortune foisted on poor or culturally marginalized kids by the media.

Teaching is recession-proof, he goes on to say.  The pay can be good, benefits always alluring, and scholarships available. In addition, transitioning from a 2 to 4-year school has become easier, with credits from the one immediately transferrable to the other.  He also expressed enthusiasm for alternative certification where professionals can become classroom teachers after taking a minimum number of classes in pedagogy.  Most school districts, he added, support these new teachers with mentoring programs.

Like Burks, Hernandez is hopeful that initiatives providing jobs and training for Latinos will come from the new administration, and he is optimistic that after many failed attempts in Congress the DREAM Act will be passed.  The law would grant immigrant children of out of status parents a path to permanent residency and the right to attend college and receive financial aid for in-state tuition.

Aside from information technology and teaching, other areas still hiring are the U.S. government (including, of course, the military), insurance, food services and health care.  In terms of actual, growth, however only health care showed gains in December, with 38,000 new jobs added and nearly 400,000 positions filled in 2008.  

Health care has come up especially clearly on the Hispanic radar due to a dramatic shortage of Latino doctors.  Only 5% of our doctors are Latino, while the Hispanic population is currently over 15%. Hospitals, clinics and Latinos themselves are clamoring for Latino physicians. The National Hispanic Medical Society sent out an SOS to Congress late last year, saying the shortage of Hispanic doctors was reaching crisis proportions. Trying to fill the gap, the America Medical Association has instituted the Hispanic Physician Outreach Initiative. And, UCLA has begun a pilot program to recruit medical school students from Latin America, either from their home countries or from lower-level health care jobs here.

Whether it means going back to school, making a career change, looking outside the community for work-related contacts, or moving far from home, Latinos are faced today with economic choices where few can afford not to think creatively nor to step out of their comfort zonel.  On the other hand, our respondents and others, people with experience and vision, have seen the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel; they are predicting recovery, albeit slow, with a change in government and have identified careers and ways of finding them that give hope.

Following are some links that may prove helpful:

Two sites for US Government jobs:

http://www.usajobs.gov/

http://www.federaljobs.net/

The American Federation of Teachers

Hispanic Physician Outreach Initiative

Recruiting minority males into nursing careers

Making Strides to Recruit Doctors Fluent in Spanish                                                                             

AND DON’T FORGET IMDiversity’s JOB BANK