Latino jobs could follow housing slowdown

TEXT OF STORY

SCOTT JAGOW: A study due out this morning gives us a good look at the Latino workforce. It shows unemployment among Latinos hit a record low 5.2 percent in the second quarter of this year. Dan Grech reports.

DAN GRECH: The Pew Hispanic Center found that nearly half a million Latinos landed jobs in construction over the past two years.

The sector accounted for one of every two new jobs Latinos found during the study period. The study’s author says the housing slowdown could hit Hispanics particularly hard.

Economist Rakesh Kocchar:

RAKESH KOCCHAR:“The circle will come back in some sense to Hispanic workers, and their recent gains may be lost.”

With fewer construction jobs, what industries are Latinos likely to turn to next? Kocchar says teaching and health care.

KOCCHAR:“In education we’re seeing Hispanics at the lower rungs of the teaching jobs. In health services, it’s an industry in which they’re establishing a toehold.”

The study also found wages for Hispanics are on the rise, but are still lower than any other racial or ethnic group.

I’m Dan Grech for Marketplace.