Latino Workers and the Recession

During the current economic downturn more than 160,000 Hispanic immigrants in the construction industry have lost jobs. A sign of the times. A recent Pew Hispanic Center study deduce from that figure and others reported by the Census Bureau and the Labor Department that significant numbers of Latino workers have disappeared from the labor market -- supposedly to return to Mexico. There is an irony here -- the number of Latino workers is growing, but at a greatly reduced rate. Still overall unemployment rate of Latinos -- 7.9& -- is significantly higher than the overall rate -- 6.1%. (See Arizona Republic article.)