The latest jobs report shows the Latino unemployment rate continues to drop steadily but still lags behind the national unemployment rate by a big margin.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Friday shows the Latino unemployment rate went from 8.7 percent in November to 8.3 percent in December. Over the course of 2013, the unemployment rate for Latinos declined by 1.2 percent.
The Latino unemployment rate has dropped in the last few months.
The National Council of La Raza pointed out that while the Latino unemployment rate declined last month, “the Latino labor force participation rate dropped and the total Latino workforce shrank by 261,000.”
Meanwhile, the national unemployment rate in December was 6.7 percent, down from 7.0 percent in November. That’s the lowest it has been since Oct. 2008.
But the drop in the national unemployment rate didn’t occur because employers created many jobs. In fact, just 74,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy in December. That’s the fewest jobs added in three years and far less than the 200,000 jobs that economics had predicted would be added in December.
Instead, the drop occurred in large part because more Americans stopped looking for jobs. An estimated 917,000 people were deemed discouraged workers, meaning they stopped looking for work because they believe there aren’t any jobs available for them.
Read full story here: http://voxxi.com/2014/01/10/latino-unemployment-rate-8-3-percent/
