Hispanic Jobless Rate Tumbles to 10.5 Percent
Feb. 3, 2012
Richard Larsen, Deputy Managing Editor
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The unemployment rate for Hispanics dropped to 10.5 percent in January, down from 11 percent in December. The rate has now dropped 1.7 percentage points since the Hispanic jobless rate peaked at 13.2 percent in November 2010. The overall unemployment rate dipped from 9 percent in December to 8.3 percent in January, the lowest level since February 2009.
"January's employment numbers exceeded all forecasts and provide the strongest evidence yet that our economic recovery is on track," Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis said in a statement released with the release of the unemployment date.
The drop in the jobless rate was fueled by the creation of 257,000 jobs in the private sector. Government continued to shed jobs, 14,000 gone in January, which makes the total nonfarm payroll employment gains 243,000. Job growth in five key sectors -- construction, health care, leisure/hospitality, manufacturing and transportation/warehousing -- accounted for 61.4 percent, or 157,000 of the new jobs.
Pacing job growth was the manufacturing section, which added 50,000 jobs in January. In descending order, the leisure/hospitality sector added 44,000 jobs, the health care sector added 29,700 jobs, the construction sector added 21,000 jobs and the transportation/warehousing sector added 13,100 jobs.
Of special note is that revised employment figures for November and December show that the private sector added 1.7 million jobs in 2011. In 2010, 1.3 million jobs were added. Quite a departure from what the Jan. 2, 2010, issue of The Washington Post called the lost decade for U.S. economy and workers: "There has been zero net job creation since December 1999. No previous decade going back to the 1940s had job growth of less than 20 percent."
Source: HispanicBusiness.com (c) 2012. All rights reserved.
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