Good news for February Latino employment
By Victor Landa, NewsTaco (1 minute read)
Good news for the economy overall, and some good news for the U.S. Latino economy specifically. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released February employment statistics this morning. Here are the numbers:
The U.S. economy added 242,000 jobs in the month of February, but the unemployment rate remained uinchanged at 4.9 percent.
[tweet_dis]The Latino umeployment ratefor February was 5.4, down from 5.9 in January.[/tweet_dis] That menas that there are 1.4 million unemployed Latinos in the U.S.; last month the number was 1.5 milli9on, so it’s an improvement.This is how that rate breaks-down among Latino subcategories:
- Men, 20 years and older – 4.7 percent unemployed (down from 4.9 percent in January), that’s 688,000 in real numbers.
- Women, 20 years and older – 5.4 percent unemployed (down from 5.9 percent in January), that’s 576,000 in real numbers.
- Both sexes, 16 to 19 years – 15.6 percent unemployed (down from 18 percent in Januray), that’s 186,000 in real numbers.
- 191,000 Latinos entered the labor force in February.
- The labor participation rate* is 66.1, up from 65.8 in January. This means that more Latinos were looking for work in February. It’s an indication of optimism because, for whatever reason, the percentage of Latinos who’ve given up looking for work is shrinking.
- The construction industry added 19,000 jobs overall.
- Manufaturing lost 16,000 jobs.
- The retail industry added 54,900 jobs.
- Professional services added 23,000 jobs.
- Education and health services added 86,000 jobs.
- 12,000 people found government work.
*When analyzing unemployment it’s good to take the participation rate into account because people who aren’t looking for work are included in the unemployment number, but not in the participation rate.
[Photo by Barnshaws Metal Bending Ltd/Flickr]
