You don't have to look very hard to notice the impact Latinos are having across all walks of American life.
We're leaders in politics, business, labor, culture and sports. We're on the Supreme Court, in the president's cabinet, in governors' mansions and in the leadership of Congress. We're CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and leaders of the American labor movement.
We've won Oscars, Grammys, Emmys and Tonys. We've got the best home run hitter in America's national pastime, and the best judge on American Idol. We've even been to outer space and tweeted -- in Spanish -- about the wonder of the world below.
In so many ways, the American Latino has come of age. And now that we've achieved positions of power and influence in this great nation, it's our responsibility to lower the ladder and help our brothers and sisters climb up.
As the country's first Latina Labor Secretary, I appreciate both how far our community has come and how far we still have to go.
I grew up the daughter of immigrants in a small barrio outside of Los Angeles and was the first member of my family to go to college. My father came from Mexico, my mother from Nicaragua. My Dad will proudly tell you he was a laborer, a farm worker and a railroad worker; my Mom worked at a toy factory and raised seven kids.
Both of my parents were determined to give us opportunities that they never had. They taught me the value of a hard day's work and that, with an education, anything is possible in America.
I'm proud to work in an administration that shares these values. As member of President Obama's cabinet, I apply them every day as we work to advance opportunities for Latinos and our prospects for a full economic recovery. A recent Department of Labor report makes clear that the two go hand in hand -- that is, Latinos will be instrumental in driving this country's renewal and growth.
Last year, America's nearly 23 million working and unemployed Latinos represented 15 percent of the United States' labor force. By 2018, we will comprise an estimated 18 percent. This expected 20 percent growth in our share of the workforce makes us the fastest-growing group of workers in the country.
Unfortunately, however, we are not yet prepared to seize the incredible opportunities before us. Today, when only 1 in 6 employed Latinos over age 25 has a bachelor's degree, the need to provide our community with access to relevant, industry-recognized 21st century skills couldn't be clearer.
At present, Latinos are much less likely to have a college degree than our white or African-American counterparts, and we earn only 70 cents on the dollar compared to white workers.
We know we can turn these numbers around. After all, Latinos come from a heritage of hard work, but our great work ethic will only flourish if we have the qualifications for job openings where we can apply it.
That's why my department is focused on creating what I call "career pathways" for Latino learners. We've partnered with 450 Hispanic-serving institutions -- community colleges and universities that are creating programs tailored to meet the needs of local employers. This is important because more than half of this country's college-educated Latinos start out at a community college, and they're looking for credentials that will translate into high-skilled, good-paying jobs.
At the Department of Labor, we're investing millions of dollars in workforce training in high-paying, high-growth industries -- in healthcare, information technology and renewable energy.
I've placed a special emphasis in the green job sector where Latinos are currently underrepresented. For example, we've awarded $150 million in grants to create "Pathways out of Poverty" for disadvantaged populations to get trained in green sector jobs like solar panel installation, and another $100 million to help dislocated workers get retrained for energy efficiency careers.
We've also funded 3,000 community one-stop career centers across the country, which are doing so much to match qualified Latino job-seekers with gainful employment.
But we must dig even deeper -- ponerle ganas, as we say in the Latino community.
We must lower the ladder all the way down to ensure our youngest generation doesn't become our lost generation.
Every day in America, 7,000 students drop out of high school. That's one dropout every 26 seconds. The problem is especially serious for our Latino youth. One in five children in our K-12 schools is Latino, and nearly half aren't finishing high school.
We simply must do better.
Earning a GED is critical if we're to get these youth back on track to continue their education and get a good job. Right now, just 1 in 10 Latinos who drop out earn a GED. We know the dropout crisis risks America's competitiveness and our economic future. We have to give our youth a second chance to earn vital workforce skills. If we don't, we will lose valuable contributors to our economy and risk falling further behind other countries.
YouthBuild and Job Corps are two of our most exciting programs at the Department of Labor, because they give thousands of Latino youngsters a second chance. These programs help them earn their GEDs while gaining real-world work experience, whether it's learning to build and retrofit homes, become chefs or acquire masonry skills.
As American Latinos, this is a time of great opportunity and great challenge for our community. For the good of our nation and our people, we must seize it -- whether that means lowering the ladder or climbing it.
As my hero Cesar Chavez said: "Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. We have seen the future, and the future is ours."
Hilda L. Solis is the United States Secretary of Labor.
Follow Sec. Hilda Solis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/HildaSolisDOL
Arianna Huffington: Hola: Introducing HuffPost LatinoVoices
I am looking forward to the first Albanian anything. They deserve a lot more credit than they get. My dental hygienist is Albanian and she is the first real Albanian I have ever met. I hope we get more.
Maybe next week I'll change my mind when I get my first Hottentot receptionist. Can't wait!!
If you made it why cant any Latinos make it? what is your secret? is it hard work work ,determination, being resposible to self and your communnity and pulling your boot straps up?
Funny how times change, eh Hilda?
What jobs???
We have hundreds of thousands of highly skilled workers searching for ANY job.
Quit blaming the Workers and get busy creating JOBs !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why should they???
Ya think that maybe the rate of pay has something to do with who will do that particular job? I think that is the secret. Plus, if you let in illegal or unskilled labor, where are they going to find work? Maybe at the low end of the scale?
If rates of pay don't matter, then let's save lots of money and have everyone work at their favorite job for $5 an hour, even CEO's of major corporations.
Oh, I forgot, they tried that in the Socialist Soviet union where they paid doctors less then their secretaries and they paid everyone almost nothing. I know. I know a Russian doctor, now an American doctor, who told me that here secretary was paid less than she was. Great system, huh?
We are around 17th in economic mobility and sinking.
Get in touch with reality.
The Department of Homeland Security has announced that seniors in these fields who are either citizens or permanent residents will now compete with foreign students on a distinctly uneven field when they seek jobs after graduationÂ.
Their prospectivÂe employers will receive a 7.65 percent bonus if they hire foreign seniors in these fields, rather than American ones, according to the Center for ImmigratioÂn Studies (CIS), a non-partisÂan think tank in WashingtonÂ, D.C. This bias against citizen and legal resident workers results from a twist in the tax and immigratioÂn laws, CIS said in a press release.
http://gardenserf.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/federal-government-encourages-employers-to-hire-foreign-grads/
http://www.ice.gov/doclib/sevis/pdf/stem-list-2011.pdf
http://cis.org/north/expanded-OPT-stem-list
http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1105/110512washingtondc2.htm
http://www.michiganfarmbureau.com/farmnews/transform.php?xml=20110615/hiring.xml
Obama sure has a great supporting cast ...
BTW Sen. Feinstein is not in favor of immigrant's rights because she is pro-Latino. She is in favor of immigrant's rights because her friends in Big Agriculture want cheap labor.
Do they really think they have it tougher than the turn of the century immigrants?
What a load of baloney.
top 20% .......... has 84%
2nd 20%.......... has 11%
3rd 20% .......... has 4%
last 40% combined get less than 1%
The top 20% "earn" 93% of all the financial wealth. And you wonder that we're having problems.
You'll be surprised that nothing is new under the sun.
if we are a special cause the middle class is in deep do do.
But what does he know? Right?