Hispanics seeing gains in jobs and pay, report says

Strong job growth for Hispanics has been largely driven by the construction industry, especially among immigrant workers, according to a Pew Hispanic Center report released Wednesday.

"The Latino Labor Report" found that the Hispanic unemployment rate reached a historic low of 5.2 percent in the second quarter of 2006, and wages for Hispanic workers rose faster than wages for other workers over the past year.

Still, the median weekly wage for Hispanics, which rose from $423 in the second quarter of 2005 to $431 this year, remained the lowest of any racial or ethnic group, the report said. The median weekly wage for all workers was unchanged at $577.

Foreign-born workers continued to dominate the Hispanic labor force, accounting for about eight of 10 new jobs landed by Hispanics over the past year.

Overall, employment of Hispanics rose by 993,000, or 5.3 percent, in one-year. Hispanics represented only 13 percent of the nation's work force, but 37 percent of the total increase in employment.

And much of that growth was in construction. Since 2003, nearly 1 million Hispanics have found jobs in construction and the industry accounted for nearly 40 percent of all new jobs gained by Hispanics, according to the report. Some 93 percent of Latinos who found work in construction over the past three years were immigrants, the report found.

"The construction sector, however, is showing signs of a slowdown that could affect Latino employment, especially foreign-born Hispanics," said Rakesh Kochhar, the report's author.

However, in Utah, officials say the construction industry isn't seeing the same slowdown. The industry is listed by the Department of Workforce Services as a targeted "industry with a future," expected to add 24,000 new jobs by 2012.

Utah could start seeing an influx of immigrants from other states as labor markets elsewhere slow, said Pam Perlich, a University of Utah research economist.

Hispanics comprise 15 percent of the nation's construction workforce in 2006, up from 11 percent in 2003.

In Utah, that ratio is probably closer to 25 percent to 35 percent in commercial construction, and even higher in residential, said Scott Stewart, direct of apprenticeship and training for the Utah chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America.

Much of Utah's recent construction job growth has been among immigrants, mostly Hispanic, but other ethnicities as well, he said.

"The common word is if we could get twice as many employees, we could keep them busy," Stewart said. "Construction companies are turning down jobs because of the simple fact we don't have the work force. That's not going to change."