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In presidential election years, it is natural to see our political leaders also as the brokers of our economic salvation. Some, such as columnist Harold Meyerson, long have embraced politics as a primary lever of upward mobility for minorities. He has positively contrasted the rise of Latino politicians in California, and particularly Los Angeles, with the relative dearth of top Latino office-holders in heavily Hispanic Texas. In Los Angeles, he notes, political activism represents the “biggest game in town” while, in Houston, he laments, politics takes second place to business interests and economic growth.

In examining the economic and social mobility of ethnic groups across the country, however, the politics-first strategy has shown limited effectiveness. Latinos, for example, have dramatically increased their elected representatives nationally since the 1990s, particularly in California. But both Latinos and African Americans continue to move to, and appear to do better in, the more free-market, politically conservative states, largely in the South. READ MORE AT THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Every year during Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15) we recognize the contributions made and the presence of Hispanics in the U.S. However, your PR and marketing efforts should not be focused around this one month celebration but instead should continue year round. Here are 10 reasons why:

Fifty percent of the U.S. population growth from 2010 to 2015 came from Hispanics and now stands at 57 million, making it the nation’s second fastest growing group. The U.S. Census expects this key demographic to more than double within the next two generations.
In 2015, Hispanics controlled $1.3 trillion in buying power and it’s expected to reach $1.7 trillion in 2020. READ MORE AT BUSINESSWIRE

Edith Ramirez will be named to chair the Federal Trade Commission, USA TODAY confirmed Thursday.

President Obama plans to appoint his former law school classmate and friend who worked on his presidential campaigns to head up the government agency. She has been an FTC commissioner since 2010.

The FTC has authority over antitrust and consumer protection matters, such as deceptive advertising claims and anti-pyramid scheme enforcement.

The past few years, Ramirez has focused on intellectual property law in the technology arena and has also worked on cases to help protect vulnerable consumer communities, such as the poor and those who don't speak English. READ MORE

ONE in six Americans is Hispanic. In politics, ignoring the Latino vote is suicidal, which is why the Republican Party is at last getting serious about immigration reform. In business, ignoring Latino tastes is equally daft, which is why American firms are at last getting serious about pursuing the Hispanic dollar.

Between 2000 and 2010 Latino buying power more than doubled (see chart), says the Selig Centre for Economic Growth. Mitt Romney’s drubbing by Hispanic voters last year was a wake-up call not only for his fellow Republicans but also for his fellow plutocrats. “CNN was saying the Republicans would become dinosaurs, and some CEOs said: ‘Wait, what about us?’,” recalls Roberto Orci of the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies. READ MORE

Credit unions from the West Coast to the South and the Midwest are waking up to the fact that reaching out to potential Hispanic members is an important part insuring a growth for the industry.

According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, there are roughly 52.0 million Hispanics living in the United States, representing approximately 16.7% of the total population, making people of Hispanic origin the nation’s largest ethnic or race minority. The U.S. Hispanic population is estimated to reach 132.8 million by 2050. READ MORE

The unemployment rate for the nation’s largest minority group rose to 9.7 percent in January from 9.6 percent in December, according to a labor report released Friday.

The Latino numbers mirrored those of the general population, which saw a rise in unemployment from 7.8 percent to 7.9 percent in December. The rate is calculated from a survey of households, and more people in that survey said they were unemployed.

But the U.S. job market showed recovery in the last month, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics report indicating that employers added 157,000 jobs in January, and hiring was much stronger at the end of last year than the government had previously estimated. READ MORE

A historic decline in the number of U.S. whites and the fast growth of Latinos are blurring traditional black-white color lines, testing the limits of civil rights laws and reshaping political alliances as "whiteness" begins to lose its numerical dominance.

Long in coming, the demographic shift was most vividly illustrated in last November's re-election of President Barack Obama, the first black president, despite a historically low percentage of white supporters.

It's now a potent backdrop to the immigration issue being debated in Congress that could offer a path to citizenship for 11 million mostly Hispanic illegal immigrants. Also, the Supreme Court is deciding cases this term on affirmative action and voting rights that could redefine race and equality in the U.S.

The latest census data and polling from The Associated Press highlight the historic change in a nation in which non-Hispanic whites will lose their majority in the next generation, somewhere around the year 2043.

Despite being a nation of immigrants, America's tip to a white minority has never occurred in its 237-year history and will be a first among the world's major post-industrial societies. Brazil, a developing nation, has crossed the threshold to "majority-minority" status; a few cities in France and England are near, if not past that point. READ MORE

The first thing you might notice when walking into Mi Pueblo Mexican Bakery is the aroma of freshly baked breads and burritos.

The next thing: laughter or friendly conversation coming from the store’s dining area, where friends gather for lunch or a quick snack after work.

On a recent Friday, two Spanish-speaking men sat at a table eating their lunch and laughing, while a woman ordered her meal in English and customers from various backgrounds shopped the market.

While Mi Pueblo sells a variety of Mexican foods, you’ll find this Twin Falls store has become a gathering place for many cultures. You’ll likely see longtime Magic Valley residents, Russians, Bhutanese and any number of other immigrant groups shopping or eating here for one of at least three reasons, said manager Aaron Nieto: because they like the food, come to share a meal with friends, or are trying to find ingredients similar to their own culture’s.

“We get a lot of Asians who come in,” he said. “We carry rare spices, so a lot of Bosnians and Russians will come in. They’re trying to bring back some of their culture. We get a lot of refugees, some from Ethiopia.”

Mi Pueblo, owned by Nieto and his family, has been doing business in their 11,000-square-foot store near Filer Avenue and Washington Street North since 2007. Before that, they owned a 700-square-foot store downtown Twin Falls, he said. The family also operates stores in Bellevue, Buhl and Jerome.

Though the economy has sometimes slowed business, Nieto said, Mi Pueblo still retains a following of returning and new customers.

Twin Falls resident Rick Dykes, who was at the store July 13 looking for a spice, is one of them.

“If anyone has it, it’ll be Mi Pueblo,” he said. READ MORE

While Latinos are gaining in political clout, they are also falling down the economic ladder, new Census numbers show.

Latinos poverty rates climbed to 28 percent after the census reconfigured its algorithm to take into account medical costs and government programs. The Hispanic poverty level rose after the government took into account safety-net programs such as food stamps and housing, which have lower participation among immigrants and non-English speakers.

Among the Findings:

—If it weren't for Social Security payments, the poverty rate would rise to 54.1 percent for people 65 and older and 24.4 percent for all age groups.

—Without refundable tax credits such as the earned income tax credit, child poverty would rise from 18.1 percent to 24.4 percent.

—Without food stamps, the overall poverty rate would increase from 16.1 percent to 17.6 percent.

"These figures are timely given the looming expiration of two key measures that account for part of these programs' large antipoverty impact: federal emergency unemployment insurance and improvements in refundable tax credits" such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, said Arloc Sherman, a senior researcher at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning think-tank. "Letting these measures expire at year's end could push large numbers of families into poverty."

Overall, the ranks of America's poor edged up last year to a high of 49.7 million, based on the new census measure.

The numbers released Wednesday by the Census Bureau are part of a newly developed supplemental poverty measure. Devised a year ago, this measure provides a fuller picture of poverty that the government believes can be used to assess safety-net programs by factoring in living expenses and taxpayer-provided benefits that the official formula leaves out. READ MORE

AHAA: The Voice of Hispanic Marketing has released its third study in its Revenue Growth series revealing a positive connection between corporate Hispanic marketing and revenue growth specific for the Technology, Telecommunications and Entertainment categories. In fact, the data showed that Hispanic allocation alone explains about 30 percent of change in topline revenue growth among manufacturers of consumer hardware, software, content, and connectivity providers.

While other factors, such as product innovation, user experience, brand equity, price and distribution, among others, are at play, the AHAA study found that for every one point increase in Hispanic marketing focus yielded a boost of about two-thirds of a point in average annual growth. In other words, if a company were to allocate 10 percent of ad resources to Hispanic media over five years, an average increase of 6.8 percent in organic revenue would be expected.

One unexpected finding was that for the tech sector, an average investment of six percent in Hispanic is yielding 30 percent of the corporate growth.

"This is a compelling figure because it means that Hispanics are primary drivers of growth among technology companies, and there is still a huge growth opportunity ahead as Hispanics continue to lead adoption and usage – think about the growth potential if technology companies were to increase that figure to 10 or even 15 percent," said Roberto Orci, chair of AHAA and CEO of Acento Advertising. "Brand loyalties are increasingly at stake as Hispanics dominate segment growth. In fact, many brands may be falling short of their optimal revenue generation while opening the door to their competitors who boast higher allocation figures and cohesive Hispanic-centric strategies." READ MORE

January can be a game-changer for workers looking for a career break and moving on to (hopefully) greener pastures.

A U.K. study estimates that 25% of the British workforce calls January the best month for a "fresh start" to leave one job and start a new one.

That process usually starts late in the previous year, when workers feeling unsatisfied over their jobs start networking by sending feelers out on LinkedIn, reshaping their resumes and cover letters and scheduling job interviews. The executive search firm ExecuNet says November and December are highly active months for job changes too, with 62% of recruiters saying hiring decisions and hiring budgets are made in the last two months of the year.

To the in-house recruiters at Progressive Insurance, that means employers who want to change teams have to be ready to roll before the New Year. Progressive's job-search team offers the following New Year's tips for job hunters at year-end: READ MORE

With the country still reeling from the aftermath of the housing crisis and the economy in a slow recovery, the federal government’s consumer watchdog group introduced a new set of rules Thursday in an attempt to rebuild a shaky housing market and to protect homeowners from defaulting on loans.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) new rules could help Latinos homeowners who have been some of those hardest hit by the housing crisis of the past few years and the goal of the Bureau's new rule is to protect consumers from risky practices that helped cause the crisis., said Moira Vahey, a spokesperson for the CFPB. READ MORE

It's true that working women earn far less than their male counterparts: roughly 77 cents on the dollar. But try being a working Latina. Their situation is even more dire.

Latina women in the United States make just 55 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men, and only 60 cents for every dollar paid to men overall, according to an analysis of Census data by the National Partnership for Women and Families. The left-leaning advocacy group came to these findings by examining the 20 states with the most full-time working Latinas.

Talking in mere cents can sound abstract, but the money adds up over time. Compare a working Latina to a working man in Florida, for example. Latinas in the Sunshine State are relatively lucky. They earn 68 cents for every dollar paid to men, the highest of any of the states surveyed. But over the course of a year, they still end up earning about $13,000 less than men. READ MORE

It's been a few years since the big collapse and slowly the economy is starting to recover. Now that a few more companies are hiring and banks are lending again, it's a perfect time to play the blame game. Every week it seems as though there's a new study pointing the finger at someone else for the collapsed housing market.

This one's interesting. According to the Center for American Progress, Latinos are bearing the brunt of mortgage foreclosures. Nearly 12 percent compared to 9.8 for African Americans and 5 percent for whites.

That is troubling. So who's to blame? The greedy money-grubbing banks of course.

According to the report, Latinos and other people of color were, "disproportionately targeted for risky subprime loans and were victims of predatory lending practices."

And while that may be true, you could argue that the banks would have been just as "discriminating" had they denied risky mortgages for the same people altogether.

We may never know who's truly to blame for the recession, or if anyone is to blame at all. But one thing's for sure: when the economy goes south, everyone feels it, and when it comes to the banks, there's no way around it. You're damned if you do, damned if you don't. READ MORE

Many of the Latino baby boomers born from 1946 through 1964 are moving into elder years without the possibility of retiring. For instance, Patricia Aristizábal started her business of promotional products two years ago.

Although many of Aristizábal’s contemporaries are about to retire, the Colombian immigrant began a new career. For her, retirement is not around the corner.

“I don’t want to think that tomorrow I'm going to retire, or even in five or 10 years. I think I started to work late and still have much energy and time to continue doing it,” she said.

In the United States there are about 8 million Hispanic boomers, almost10 percent of all who make up that generation, said Fernando Torres-Gil, vice president of the National Council on Disability and director of the Center for Policy Research on Aging at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Recent U.S. Census data show that Georgia has a total of 2.5 million boomers. Of those, almost 80,000 are Latino.

Gaps Between Latino, White Boomers

Torres-Gil, who also headed the U.S. Administration on Aging under President Clinton,has researched this generation. He explained that Latinos boomers have made more progress than their parents, who made sacrifices for their children to enjoy a better life.

According to Torres-Gil, these sacrifices have helped many Latinos reach for the American dream. However, the situation of this generation cannot be compared with their peers of other ethnicities. READ MORE

The U.S. unemployment rate for Latinos fell to 9.9 percent in September, the lowest jobless rate in nearly four years, and the lowest level since President Barack Obama first took office.

Latino unemployment has hit a 45 month low as September marks the first time the Latino jobless rate has fallen below 10 percent since December of 2008, when it was 9.4 percent.

The number of unemployed Hispanics has dropped by nearly 20 percent since the number of unemployed Latinos hit its peak at over 3 million in November 2010.

If not for all the people who have simply dropped out of the labor force, the real unemployment rate would be closer to 11 percent.

- Mitt Romney, Republican Nominee

According to the report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, September's Latino unemployment rate declined from 10.2 percent in August and is in line with the overall downward national trend for the jobless rate, which fell to 7.8 percent, down from 8.1 percent,--a 44-month low. The number of unemployed Americans is now 12.1 million, the fewest since January 2009. READ MORE

When broadcast television and Internet data streams out of the Democratic National Convention this week, Louis Romero will be “feeling really good” about his company, Network Cabling Systems in Charlotte. That’s because the $8 million, 55-employee venture spent two months this year upgrading cable systems at one of the convention’s venues to accommodate coverage. “When we look at our president and the other political figures, we’ll know we had something to do with that,” says Romero, 50.

As a Hispanic entrepreneur, Romero has “just as much opportunity as any other business does,” and has faced obstacles with cash flow and administration, similar to many business owners. His goal this year is to “grow organically and smart” and draw up a succession plan for his 22-year-old venture.

Hispanic entrepreneurs opened twice as many businesses as the national average in the 2000s, according to U.S. Census data. But a new study shows that Hispanic employers are outperformed by white employers, generating lower revenue and employing fewer workers over time. Nearly half employ one to four workers; even after 16 years in business, 66 percent report fewer than 10 employees, according to the University of Texas at Austin’s Bureau of Business Research study (PDF). READ MORE

The number of Latinos who own and operate small businesses in Minnesota is booming. This state-wide trend is spreading to Moorhead.

Express Janitorial Services owner Jesus Gutierrez is making sure Fargo's Family Healthcare is squeaky clean.

Jesus Gutierrez – Express Janitorial Services: "I want to provide to my family whatever they need."

Gutierrez is pretty busy. He's got accounts all over the F-M area, including Moorhead's Menards.

Jesus Gutierrez: "I was an employee a couple years ago, and I got a lot of experience, and in the meantime I decide to be more successful on my own."

The native of Mexico made the Midwest move to take advantage of a thriving economy, and he's not alone. The number of Latino owned businesses has grown a quarter in just 5 years.

Jesus Gutierrez: "Business like food business, cleaning business, any kind of small business pretty much."

Don't forget antique businesses, like Latino-owned and operated Lucia's Vintage Decor, which just opened up in October.

David Miranda – Sister Owns Lucia’s Vintage Decor: "It's just picking up; people are realizing we are here now." READ MORE

CNN Latino, the news network directed to the Hispanic market in the US, will close down its programming operations after a year, this February.

“CNN Latino was a bold effort to emphasize CNN’s commitment to the Hispanic market in the United States,” said Isabel Bucaram , a spokeswoman for CNN in Spanish.

“During 2013 we learned a lot and will use that knowledge to continue to innovate and evolve our presence in the Hispanic community in the United States,” Bucaram added. READ MORE

In my experience working with Fortune 500 companies, I have found 10 reasons why management teams fail to capture a significant share of Hispanic consumers.

1. There is no company-wide alignment on making the Hispanic market a strategic initiative

Halfhearted efforts result in failure because they lack the rigor and discipline applied to every other aspect of the company’s business. For example, when entering an emerging market for the first time, a company conducts qualitative research to uncover customer insights that leads to innovative new products and services, followed by quantitative research to confirm, clarify and measure results.

This is routine practice when deploying a high impact go-to market strategy in an emerging market, yet many U.S. companies today cannot get their minds around an emerging market within their own borders.

2. Companies fail to allocate a minimum level of resources including budgets, people and time

Making this a “nice to have” budget item won’t work.

3. Companies fail to treat Hispanics as a true emerging market

Many Fortune 500 multinationals have invested wisely in pursuing business in Brazil, Russia, India, and China – markets with large populations, growing economies and consumers starving for western products and services. Yet they ignore the U.S. Hispanic market, which will soon become one of the 10 largest economies in the world.

According to the U.S. Census, Hispanic purchasing power will exceed $1.5 trillion by 2015 – only nine economies in the world are larger. If Hispanic-America were a nation, it would be a member of the G-20. In fact, Hispanic-America's purchasing power per capita (at $20, 400) exceeds that of each of the four BRIC countries – Russia ($15,900), Brazil (10,800), China ($7,600) and India ($3,500).

That is an emerging market worth pursuing. READ MORE