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Delivering on Job Creation When Comprehensive Legislation is Out of the Question

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Begin by finding out what’s working

By Eric Rodriguez

Voters in the midterm elections sent a clear directive to Congress to tackle unemployment, and Democrats and Republicans fervently reaffirmed their commitment to get Americans back to work. But the last three weeks have made it clear that years of disappointing jobs reports, anger from unemployed Americans, pressure from desperate businesses, and warnings from economists of all stripes are little match for the political realities in Washington. Partisan sniping and a focus on deficit reduction mean that any new proposal to jumpstart hiring will be subject to heavy scrutiny. Members of Congress will likely shy away from offering large-scale, comprehensive plans to create jobs for fear of being portrayed as fiscally irresponsible.

Even if no one in Washington is willing to go big for American workers, lawmakers must still take steps to advance job creation incrementally—or risk losing their jobs in 2012. A good starting point to stimulate job creation is to find out where it’s actually happening. In which states? In which industries? How can we build on this momentum?

It turns out that during the height of the recession, Latinos made employment gains in several states (see table below). This is despite elevated unemployment rates for Latinos, which remain two to three percentage points above the national rate. These figures only account for Latinos who are currently employed, so they cannot be explained solely by the fact that Latinos are the fastest-growing share of the American labor force (those who are employed and those who are searching for work). Against the odds, Latino workers are helping to sustain a fragile but unmistakable recovery.

In the coming months, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR)—the largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States—will take a closer look at promising employment trends. We’ll interview industry and state labor market experts and make recommendations based on what we learn. We welcome your input and hope you will continue to stay tuned. You can email your ideas to Catherine Singley at csingley@nclr.org.

States with the Largest Net Gains in Latino Employment, 2008–2009
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Geographic Profile of Employment and Unemployment, 2008” and “Geographical Profile of Employment and Unemployment, 2009.” Washington, DC, http://www.bls.gov/opub/gp/laugp.htm (accessed November 2010).

  Employed Latinos, 2008 (thousands) Employed Latinos, 2009 (thousands) Net Change in Latino Employment, 2008–2009 (NCLR calculation) (thousands) Percent Change in Latino Employment, 2008–2009 (NCLR calculation)
Oklahoma 99 125 26 26.3%
Massachusetts 177 198 21 11.9%
Pennsylvania 229 249 20 8.7%
Kentucky 41 58 17 41.5%
Maryland 220 237 17 7.7%
Georgia 340 354 14 4.1%
Virginia 251 265 14 5.6%
Nebraska 57 69 12 21.1%
New York 1,316 1,325 9 0.7%
Louisiana 63 70 7 11.1%
Ohio 123 129 6 4.9%

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