HispanicBusiness

There is no shock today with the March 2008 release of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' "Employment status of the Hispanic or Latino population by sex and age" report (pdf file). 153,000 Hispanics, feeling the economy's continued labor pains, joined the unemployment sector during the month of March. This constitutes about 35 percent of the overall increase in the level of unemployed U.S. workers, which is an increase of 434,000 since last month. The overall U.S. unemployment rate increased 0.3 percentage points on the month to reach 5.1 percent, while the Hispanic overall unemployment rate increased 0.7 percentage points during the same period to reach 6.9 percent.

Hispanic men took the largest hit last month with a total loss of 95,000 jobs, while Hispanic women endured a job loss of 22,000 during March. The unemployment rate for Hispanic males increased to 7.2 percent from 6.5 percent in February. Hispanic females, on the other hand, increased their unemployment rates by a smaller percentage to reach 6.1 percent in March. In comparison, the overall male unemployment rose 0.3 percentage points to reach 4.6 percent, while overall women rose from 4.2 percent to 4.6 percent.

On a lighter note, Hispanic teenagers (16-19) managed to decrease their unemployment rate to 17.8 last month, while overall U.S. teenagers decreased to 15.8 percent. The number of unemployed U.S. teens decreased by 60,000 in the month of March with Hispanic teenagers causing 16.67 percent of that decrease.

Since March 2007, 396,000 Hispanics have been added to the number of unemployed, and the unemployment rate has increased 1.7 percentage points from 5.2 percent to 6.9 percent. This is not including the 358,000 Hispanics that have been taken out of the labor force. The overall U.S. unemployment rates have increased from 4.4 percent to 5.1 percent in the same period. This report only exacerbates the continued focus on the true state of the Economy, and it is an indication of the continued trend toward a possible recession.