Hispanic Labor Force Outpaces All Others in Growth

A recent Monthly Labor Review article reports that the Hispanic labor force in the United States more than doubled from 1990 to 2014, dwarfing the growth of the next fastest growing group, women. The 137 percent increase in Hispanic workers, from 10.7 million to 25.4 million workers between 1990 and 2014, surpasses the 29.0 percent growth of women and the 21.4 percent of men in the labor force, to say nothing of the 13 percent increase in the number of non-Hispanic civilian workers. Indeed, the representation of Hispanics among all civilian workers has nearly doubled, from 8.5 percent to 16 percent of the workforce, states a separate article by Marie Mora, professor of economics at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

“The growth rate of the number of Hispanic civilian women in the labor force was particularly acute (157 percent) compared with their male counterparts (124 percent) in the past quarter century,” states Mora. “The population growth rates of female and male civilian non-Hispanic workers rose by 18 percent and 9 percent, respectively, during this time.”

As a result, the share of Hispanic women among female workers doubled from 7.3 percent to 14.7 percent) and that of Hispanic men among male workers, from 9.5 percent to 17.7 percent, nearly doubled. Mora notes that the growth pattern was already observable almost 30 years ago, when a pattern from the 1980s was then observed. At that time, Hispanic workers had grown 44 percent to 7.7 million between 1980 and 1987, representing a fifth of the workforce growth in that period.

“One additional shift in just the past decade worth highlighting is that U.S.-born Hispanics have been driving population growth more than immigrants,” writes Mora, noting that by 2050, Hispanics will represent nearly 30 percent of the U.S. population. “If Hispanic women continue to disproportionately enter the workforce, gender-related differences in labor market outcomes (including earnings, self-employment, labor force participation, and occupations) as well as in family/societal factors (such as fertility rates, maternity/parental leave, and access to childcare, healthcare, and schools) will become increasingly important.”