With the 2016 presidential race now underway it’s not immigration that is chiefly on the minds of the nation’s estimated 11 million Latino voters nation-wide, but the economy. A new report by the Pew Research Center shows that Latinos are more focused on matters like raising wages, income inequity and education.
Describing the report’s findings, Mark Lopez, director of Pew’s Hispanic Research said, “The recession really impacted Hispanic’s wealth more than it did to anyone else and it hasn’t quite recovered.”
Alarmingly, as a group, Latinos lost approximately $10,000 in annual income from 2007 to 2013. While Latino employment figures are viewed as relatively better than those of other demographic groups, most Latino workers are concentrated in 4 low-income or minimum wage job sectors – retail, restaurants, construction and business services. Look for candidates to debate increasing minimum wage laws as a way to directly speak to the Latino community who view rebuilding wealth as a main concern.
According to Pew, Latino households that own small business tend to earn more income than those which do not. Additionally, Pew found that the Latino small business growth rate in the US was about the national average. Many in the Latino community point to this as a prime example of a job-quality deficit amongst Latinos
Compounding Latinos’ economic worries, Latinos point to a quality-of-education problem. “With many earning degrees from community colleges, making it hard to compete against graduates from more elite universities,” experts say.
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