Abid Aslam

WASHINGTON, May 6 2005 (IPS) — Hispanic workers saw their employment rate rise in 2004 but the growth took place in low-skill, low-income jobs that dragged down their average wages, making them the only U.S. ethnic group to suffer a two-year decline in wages, says a new report citing official data.

Researchers said the findings highlight not only growing polarisation between Hispanic and non-Hispanic U.S. workers, but also fierce competition for jobs among various migrant populations.

Hispanic workers accounted for more than one million of the 2.5 million new jobs created in the U.S. economy last year, said the non-governmental Pew Hispanic Centre’s analysis of the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Bureau of Labour Statistics.

Workers from the Spanish-speaking world now earn five percent less than they did two years ago. Recently arrived Hispanic immigrants were a leading source of new workers to the economy but also among the principal recipients of wage cuts in 2004, the study said.

”Despite strong demand for immigrant workers, their growing supply and concentration in certain occupations suggests that the newest arrivals are competing with each other in the labour market to their own detriment,” said the report’s author, Rakesh Kochhar, a senior research associate at the Centre.

The vast majority of new jobs for Hispanic workers were in relatively low-skill occupations calling for little other than a high school education. In contrast, non-Hispanic workers secured large increases in employment in higher-skill occupations requiring at least some college education.

”Hispanics and whites, the two largest groups of workers in the economy, are finding new jobs in such different occupations that they appear to be on separate paths in the labour market,” said Kochhar, a labour economist.

This polarisation contributed to the growing gap in earnings between Hispanic and non-Hispanic workers, the report said. The fall in wages for Latinos was greatest among immigrants who arrived in the United States in the past five years.

”The new immigrants who are enjoying significant growth in employment are doing so at the expense of lower wages. This trend is, no doubt, exacerbated by their concentration in occupations calling for minimal skills and education.”

Hispanic employment increased by one million workers, or by six percent, last year, the report said. Allowing for immigration and young workers completing school and entering the job force, this job growth cut the number of unemployed Latinos by 48,000 workers.

Non-Hispanic employment increased by 1.5 million, or by 1.2 percent, last year as the ranks of unemployed non-Hispanics decreased by 461,000.

The unemployment rate for Hispanics has fallen by more than two percentage points since mid-2003 and is now closer to the unemployment rate for non-Hispanics than at any point since 2000, the report said.

Eighty-one percent of new jobs for foreign-born Latinos and 76 percent of new jobs for U.S.-born Latinos were in occupations requiring minimal formal education. In contrast, 64 percent of new jobs for U.S.-born white workers were in occupations requiring a college degree or more.

Hispanics’ real weekly earnings fell by 2.2 percent in 2003 and another 2.6 percent in 2004. Latinos are the only major group of workers whose wages have fallen for two consecutive years, the report said.

Meanwhile, wages of non-Hispanic white and black workers increased in 2003 but declined by 1.8 percent and 1.0 percent respectively in 2004.

Asian workers are the only group to have increased their earnings each of the past two years.

Recently arrived Latino immigrants saw their wages fall by 2.6 percent in 2004. Recently arrived non-Hispanic immigrants’ earnings fell by the same amount in 2004, the report said.