Hispanics Believe They Were Hit Harder In Bad Economy, Pew Reports

As the debate on immigration widens the gap between Republican and Democratic Latino voters, there seems to be one issue that unites Hispanics -- the need for jobs.

54 percent of Latinos in the U.S. believe they were hit the hardest during the recession, according to a recent report by Pew Hispanic Center.

According to the report, 59 percent of Latino survey subjects said that they or someone in their household has been out of work in the past year compared with 51 percent of the general public. 75 percent said that their personal finances are in “only fair” or “poor” shape, 49 percent said that they canceled or delayed a major purchase in the past year, and 28 percent of Latino homeowners say they owe more on their home than they could sell it for today, compared with just 14 percent of homeowners in the general public.

In other words, the economic situation for Latinos has not gotten significantly better.

The unemployment rate for Latinos in December 2011 was 11.0 percent, up from 6.3 percent at the start of the recession in December 2007, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. During that same period, the national unemployment rate increased from 5.0 percent to 8.5 percent.

Last December, Census estimates found that nearly half of Americans were considered "poor or low-income". When broken down by race and ethnicity, Hispanics topped the list at 73 percent, followed by blacks, Asians and non-Hispanic whites.

Although the statistics should indicate otherwise, Hispanics are somehow still optimistic about their financial future: Pew found that, “Fully two-thirds (67 percent) of Latinos say they expect their financial situation to improve over the next year, compared with 58% of the general population who say the same.”

Pew's findings were based on a survey of 1,220 Latino adults, conducted from November 9 through December 7, 2011 throughout all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The survey was done in Spanish and English on cellular and land line telephones.

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[Fred Bronson]

09:38 AM on 01/31/2012

Well let's see. First they were the biggest group working they had pushed out black and white Americans from their jobs. So yea since they were the only ones working they got hit when the jobs they robbed slowed down. IDEA take your fraud babies and your ?bores and go the heck back to your country
Frederick Bronson NC

[Nathan Rivard]

04:24 PM on 01/30/2012

Aaaaaaaaghhhhhhhhhhhhhh that breaks my heart. Go home see if it is any better. And I mean one way trip home.

[ramman]

11:17 AM on 01/30/2012

This is a first compared to the multiple studies shown over the last three years that show African-Americans were hit the hardest. Now does this really matter probably not unless seeking truth matters to you.

[wolfvampire]

08:32 AM on 01/30/2012

The US is going down from a First World Nation to a Second World Nation. Nothing is going to stop that decline. Diversity is not a strength it is a weakness.

[CrestedSparrow]

01:00 PM on 01/30/2012

Spoken like a true separatist.

[wolfvampire]

08:30 AM on 01/30/2012

Don't care one bit.

[RHofm50129]

05:48 AM on 01/30/2012

Well, duh, most are uneducated and have nothing to offer an employer but manual labor. In our society manual labor jobs are decreasing. Construction is down; landscaping is down. The Hispanic community does not appear to value education any more than the Black community does. This is not conducive to getting jobs.

[CrestedSparrow]

01:08 PM on 01/30/2012

48M Hispanics are not migrant workers, but I am not surprised to read a stereotypical comment. It looks like you don't have an education by your bigoted comment. There were over 2,000,000 business owners in 2010 with a 450Billion annual revenues. Many first generation Hispanics are amazingly resourceful and many own business, but what would you know about it? I was a manager in large corporation for 17 years. All my family worked in well paying jobs. They do VALUE EDUCATION; ever hear of the Dream Act that people like you wish to kill? I see, you prefer keeping them uneducated so that you can spew own brand of ignorance.

[Seastink]

04:46 PM on 01/30/2012

They don't value education at all. Hispanic kids in the once great LAUSD have a 50% drop out rate. It's nice that your family is the exception.

Repeal the dream act. It's bad for America.

[badwolf62]

01:04 AM on 01/30/2012

the illegal immigration question is a hot issue and the answers these candidates give are widely divided.
Romney: Deport all the illegals and start over.
Gingrich: Deport most of them , keep the select ones.
Santorum: forgive theml, they are a gift and all God's children. Just deport the bad ones.
Paul: send more troops to the alamo.

[ConservativeChampion]

08:49 PM on 01/29/2012

More and more Latino voters are seeing the bad results from Democrat party policies. It leaves people who are looking for opportunity and a chance to move up in life in a spot that they cannot do either.

This is why the Democrats are losing support and losing voters.

[ConservativeChampion]

08:46 PM on 01/29/2012

More Hispanic voters are seeing that a bad economy is bad for all. obama has promised the sun and the moon and has delivered a bad economy.

[dirtydog1776]

05:25 PM on 01/29/2012

How dare they take away the spot light away from blacks who have been oppressed for over 400 years.

[Buzzm1]

02:37 PM on 01/29/2012

Mandate E-Verify and give it some sharp teeth, to help solve both,
the illegal immigration, and the unemployment problem http://bit.ly/xmiGyx

[CertifiedApproved]

02:27 PM on 01/29/2012

I think that all people believe their ethnic group was hit the hardest. I am of Southeast Asian (Indian) and African American decent and Indians will say that they suffered a lot and blacks will say the same. The reality is ALL people have been hit hard during this recession and ALL of us are going to have to work together to help the country. If we don't we're doomed and that's just a fact.

www.cafepress.com/certifiedapprovedtees

[Dad of Marine]

04:43 PM on 01/29/2012

Yes, all have been hit hard! No doubt. But, some groups, people of color, have been harder, than whites, relatively speaking! This is a proven fact. To deny this fact is simply ignoring reality!
I do agree with you that we, as a country, together, need to work together to get out of this huge economic hole that has devastated us all, generally speaking and of course, NOT the 1% who have been doing well! Zero sum game they play as we lose the little wealth we did have and they, the 1%, gain what we have lost!

[CertifiedApproved]

01:57 PM on 01/30/2012

I'm not ignoring reality. I am focusing on what's important. I don't believe in 'divide and conquer' but apparently it works because that's - as far as I'm concerned - what these studies are designed to do. Make EVERYBODY of color holler, "Oh, no! It wasn't (fill in the blank race group likely with brown colored skin'), it was US! (who ever YOU are). I'm not promoting that. I advocate for reading between the lines and between the lines we need to see that if we don't work together we WILL continue to be divided and thus the 1% can continue to laugh in our faces as they take everything we have all earned.

www.cafepress.com/certifiedapprovedtees

[CertifiedApproved]

01:58 PM on 01/30/2012

By the way, my Dad is an Army Vet and proud, too! :)

[CrestedSparrow]

01:20 PM on 01/30/2012

Yeah, but last I checked, politicians weren't WAGING AN ANTI-Southeast Asian or African American campaign; for the last 4 years, a vitriolic campaign targeting one ethnic group-Hispanics-- has had a devastating impact socially and economically even for Americans and legal residents! The goal of demonizing, vilifying, and disenfranchising one ethnic group has been successful! These campaigns sanction racism and discrimination and no one gives a rat's ass because it doesn't affect them personally. Everyone has been hit, but no one has been hit as hard as Hispanics.

[CertifiedApproved]

01:42 PM on 01/30/2012

I beg to differ. Politicians have waved and anti-African American campaign since the 1700's when the African slave trade became the 'new world's' economic boom. However, I was born and raised in CA so I do agree with you that over the last few (maybe more than just a few) years there has been an intense attack on Latinos and I'm pretty sure both you and I know why. But I am not here to argue with you about who has had it the worst. My initial comment was just to point out that we can either argue about that kind of stuff and continue to be divided or we can start working together for the good of the country for EVERYONE to survive this recession and be stronger for it.

www.cafepress.com/certifiedapprovedtees

[Old Grady]

01:31 PM on 01/29/2012

"According to the report, 59 percent of Latino survey subjects said that they or someone in their household has been out of work in the past year compared with 51 percent of the general public."
Further study suggests that 0.25% of those surveyed believe that illegal immigration contributes to their plight.
OK, I just made that last part up. Sorry.
But wouldn't it be interesting if that question had also been asked?

[Armando Cedillo]

12:27 PM on 01/29/2012

One would hope that the Hispanic Americans who informed the sad results of this poll would realize that ever-increasing numbers of low-skilled undocumented aliens is not helping their situation. It is time for us to come together and kindly bid farewell to our undocumented brothers and sisters. They are humans with dignity, yes, but they are also breaking the laws of our nation and degrading the reputation of our ethnic communities in their defiance. They need to go home.

[TggerJen]

04:00 PM on 01/29/2012

They don't realize that very often apparently, because they are often advocating against their own best interests by demanding that those here illegally be given amnesty and more family members be allowed to come legally.
You wrote an awesome comment, and I hope you are right about the kind farewell. They do need to go home, without exception. It'd be nice if the President, Congressional Dems, and ICE (particularly Director Morton) would figure that out and work to motivate them to leave instead of promising them more and more freebies if they'll stay and working to undermine enforcement at every opportunity.

[voyager48]

10:04 AM on 01/29/2012

Statiscs have shown that this recession was a small business recession. Corporate profits are at an all time high and the divide between rich and poor is at record high.

Big companies have the staff and resources to do employment screening and are run by professional managers who are not about to expose themselves to the risk of being caught employing illegals. While with fake ID a large number of illegals do get hired by large companies it has been my experience that In my experience that a great many illegals are employed in small companies who either feel they have to in order to cut costs to the bone or who do so because they don't want the hassle or cost of managing employees who are going to hold them to proper safety and work standards.

1 in 5 Hispanics are so think there is little doubt that we are again being subjected the usual divisive tactic of painting all Hispanics with the same brush and then crying Wolf - and we all know that parable.

I am absolutely not making light of Hispanics or any worker who faces adversity for reasons beyond their control. But I simply fail to understand why collectively they continue to rabidly support illegals at their own detriment.

[RHofm50129]

05:52 AM on 01/30/2012

You are wrong about large companies not hiring illegals. When we lived in Texas, my husband's company hired big bunches of them. I remember one Friday afternoon a group of them was picked up and deported back across the border. They called my husband and said he shouldn't worry, as they would be back to work on Monday. And they were. You are kidding yourself.

[voyager48]

10:13 AM on 01/30/2012

I have worked for big companies and I know exactly the standards that they employ and unfortunately plausible deniability works as well for them as it does for anyone. However the official policy for most is not to employ illegals and lets say many are concerned with the risk and are increasingly less willing to take it (but only because of enforcement and the fact that are bigger targets).

I have sat through briefing sessions in big companies in AZ where they actually discouraged their hiring officers form taking illegals because of the increasingly punitive laws which left the company exposed - not just the hiring officer or whoever signed off on the I-9.

Most small companies that I have worked with don't care and as long as that fake id looks halfway decent the worker is hired.