HISPANIC BUSINESS

The Department of Labor released its employment outlook this morning, and it appears as though a soothing trend has come for the Hispanic labor market. The looming backdrop of rising unemployment, increasing inflation, and decreased jobs was mildly challenged with the release of this month's "Employment status of the Hispanic or Latino population by sex and age." The Hispanic civilian labor force increased by an overall 57,000 from the large decrease of 190,000 in January of this year, while the overall U.S. market saw a decrease of 450,000 from a month earlier. The number of employed Hispanics increased by 81,000 from the 197,000 decrease in January 2008 and the 106,000 decrease in December 2007.

The U.S. market experienced a 255,000 person decreased, yet the overall level of unemployment decreased by 195,000. More importantly, the overall Hispanic unemployment rate and number of unemployed Hispanics decreased to reach their respective totals of 1,354,000 and 6.2 percent. The same shift was seen in the overall labor market, where the unemployment rate decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 4.8 percent in February. The Hispanic employment to population rebounded a bit to get back to 64.3 percent in February 2008, while the overall U.S. market decreased 0.2 percentage points to reach 62.7 percent.

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