Big changes are still needed to combat discrimination in the Latino job market.

The prolonged effect of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect the entire country. The job market has taken as many swings as the up and down spread of the virus. In April the unemployment rate in the U.S. was 14.7 percent—an all time high. Weekly unemployment claims burst any previous high mark ever recorded by almost a factor of six. Before the economy busting pandemic the U.S.  finally saw some stable, low unemployment rates. Lower than they’d been in decades in fact. Even when it looked like things were good, something else was hiding in the shadows. 

Labor market conditions for the Latino community we still way behind when compared to the same jobs in the same sectors. And they had been since 1976 when the U.S. Labor Department started tracking ethnicity.

Systemic discrimination which is actually based on a variety of reasons, including ethnicity, needs to be addressed at a high level with specific actions and policies. It’s easy to point fingers and say there are too many people in the areas where Latinos are looking for work. Or there may be forces at work like lack of education or negative views toward immigrants. In addition to these though, are deeper, systemic reasons for this. The good news is there are a variety of potential policies that can create substantial change. READ MORE HERE from the Center for American Progress.

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