Latinos had the second-highest unemployment rate among the major racial-ethnic groups in October, according to the most recent survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Latino men saw an increase from last month.
The Latino unemployment rate was 10.0 percent, an increase from 9.9 percent in September. The Latino unemployment rate for October 2011 was 11.4 percent. The number of Latino unemployed in October was 2,469,000, or 20.1 percent of all unemployed in the U.S., according to a recent article on the NiLP Network on Latino Issues website based on figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The site also pointed out the unemployment count does not reflect Blacks or Latinos currently incarcerated (nor would it for whites either).
The bureau’s report showed an increase in the overall unemployment rate of 7.8 percent in September to 7.9 percent in October. The unemployment rate for Blacks was 14.3 percent, for Whites it was 7.0 percent and for Asians it was 4.9 percent
The unemployment rate for Latino women was higher at 9.5 percent than Latino men, at 8.3 percent. The unemployment rate for Latinos ages 16 to 19 was 28.9 percent, an increase over the previous month’s rate of 27.8 percent.
Employment statistics for Latinos do not include Puerto Rico, whose residents are US citizens. The U.S. Labor Department uses a separate program for Puerto Rico employment figures, which lag a month behind results for the U.S.
According to a local survey, in September 2012 the unemployment rate in Puerto Rico was 13.6 percent, almost unchanged from the previous month (13.5 percent), and representing 172,500 unemployed persons in this US territory of 3.7 million. If Puerto Ricans were added to U.S. numbers for unemployment, Latinos would make up about 21.3 percent of all unemployed people in the U.S.
