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The evolution of work is becoming a battle between flexibility and stability. The sharing economy offers people unprecedented opportunities to work when, where, and as much as they want. But it also threatens a future in which stable, well-paying jobs cede to temporary gigs with few protections. Lawmakers wonder: How do we stoke new-economy industries without burning up old-economy security? READ MORE AT INC

Every cloud has a silver lining. And when it comes to the current status of the retail industry, which ranges from "bleak to promising, according to Business.com, that silver lining consists of Hispanic millennials. In fact, regardless of the state of retail at large, Hispanic millennials — especially Latinas — are the new now of retail, and their impact on your bottom line may be more than you realize. READ MORE AT MEDIAPOST

Annual hotel openings have nearly tripled over the past five years, according to a recent forecast by Statista. Just who’s expected to fill all these new rooms moving forward? Rather than think in age demographics (baby boomers vs. Millennials), it’s time for the hospitality industry to recognize a powerful yet largely untapped target audience: U.S. Hispanics.

Now taking more vacations across every income level — and spending nearly READ MORE AT O'DWYER'S

For more than a week, Marisol Paniagua has been living at an evacuation center. She had been scheduled to pick grapes at a vineyard near the city of Santa Rosa, Calif. But that work was canceled because of the wildfires ravaging Northern California.

“It’s very difficult right now because we just have a little bit of gas left in our car. That’s how we are still able to drive around,” said Paniagua, 37. “But the fact is, we have nothing.”

The wildfires in Northern California have already done more than $1 billion in damage according to the state’s insurance commissioner. In Sonoma County, one of the hardest hit areas, about a third of the economy is related to agriculture, wine and tourism. READ MORE AT HOUSTON PUBLIC MEDIA

Even as there are signs that the economy is beginning to turn the corner for the better, the Hispanic community is lagging behind.

Hispanics have a higher than the national average unemployment rate and many more are living below the poverty line. Most gut-wrenching, nearly a third of all Latino children are living in poverty. The last eight years have failed to do much to ameliorate this situation despite well-intentioned government policies.

The incoming Trump administration has an opportunity to reverse this trend and work to ensure that Latinos are able to prosper and live out the American Dream. READ MORE AT THE HILL

America's start-up culture is waking up from its post-recession slumber.

New business creation has long been sluggish compared with previous decades. In 2013, it hit a 20-year low. But since then, the pace of start-up creation has climbed for two years running, according to a study by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and is approaching levels not seen since before the recession, in 2008 and 2009. Significantly, new entrepreneurs are opening up shop not because of necessity — in other words, not because they were previously unemployed and needed income — but because they see an opportunity that previously didn't exist. READ MORE AT THE WEEK

Since the early-2000s when cell phones evolved from mobile dialing devices to “smart” phones for checking email, playing games, work and watching entertainment, it became very clear through research that the Hispanic population in the U.S. was a demographic consisting of eager and early adopters.

While the research clearly showed Latin Americans taking to the newest gadgets – not all entertainment and telecom companies were spending the money to truly market to this important demographic. Or if they did, they took a “one-size-fits-all” approach and did not take cultural and generational differences into account. READ MORE AT TG DAILY

The Hispanic population in the United States hit 57 million last year and the demographic accounts for more than half of the total U.S. population growth since 2004.

A Pew Research Center study found that California is the state with the highest number of Latinos, 15 million. Second is Texas (10.4 million), followed far behind by Florida (4.8 million), New York (3.7 million), and Illinois (2.2 million).

The three counties with the highest rate of Latino population growth, however, are in North Dakota. Between 2007 and 2014, Williams County's Latino population grew 367 percent, followed by Stark County (294 percent) and Ward County (117 percent). READ MORE AT NEWSMAX

By now, many marketers have heard of the tremendous opportunities the United States. Hispanic consumer represents in terms of numbers and purchasing power. However, in the age of hypersegmentation and targeting, Millennials and bi-cultural Hispanics have risen to the top of marketer’s go-to Hispanic sub-segments. While most companies focus on this target, there is an untapped consumer segment that has serious growth potential, Hispanic business owners. READ MORE AT MEDIAPOST

In the next 15 years, the Hispanic population in the United States is expected to grow by 20 million people, a rate of growth that is three times the national average. In Nashville, the Hispanic population in 2010 was 106,257 people, and is expected to grow to 326,609 people in a similar time period.

This makes the U.S. Hispanic population the fastest growing segment of the population, and one that will have a significant health care presence. Today, more than 10 million Hispanic Americans are eligible to get health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act. READ MORE AT THE TENNESSEAN

In a country built by immigrants, numbers represent the strength and ability to move forward both culturally and economically. Such is the case for Latinos, a growing force in the United States currently representing 18 percent of the overall population — a number expected to grow to 30 percent by 2060.

The economic impact Latinos have in the country as a group is growing at a steady rate, and according to Nielsen, a global information measurement firm, Latinos are "the most influential segment since the baby boomers," representing a $1.5 trillion consumer market.

The economic impact extends beyond the Latino consumer to the Latino entrepreneur. The State of Latino Entrepreneurship 2015 Report, created by the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative. READ MORE AT CNBC

If you go by the number of people who check the “Hispanic” box in US Census Bureau forms, people of Latin American descent make up 18% of the population. But, among the adult population, there are another 5 million, who don’t consider themselves Hispanic but descend from Latin America, according estimates from Pew Research Center.

Among the estimated 42.7 million U.S. adults with Hispanic ancestry in 2015, 89%, or about 37.8 million, thought of themselves as Hispanic or Latino, but the rest did not, according to Pew surveys. By the fourth generation, half those with Hispanic background no longer consider themselves part of the group. READ MORE AT QUARTZ

Increasing college enrollment rates among American-born Hispanics and a surge in Latina entrepreneurship aren’t enough to eliminate wage disparities that prevent Latino families from improving their economic well-being, according to a new report.

“Latinos are better educated than ever before. In many ways, we are moving forward,” said Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ release of “The Economic State of the Latino Community in America” report.
“But this last recession has really hurt the Latino-Hispanic community,” Sanchez said.
It certainly hurt Arizona’s Hispanics, who make up nearly one-third of the state’s population, said James Garcia, a spokesman for the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. READ MORE AT CASA GRANDE DISPATCH

Wage theft is epidemic and it hits Latino workers the hardest. A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute found that wage theft across America is costing workers $50 billion per year. Compare that to the robberies, burglaries, larcenies, and motor vehicle thefts in the FBI’s uniform crime report, which cost victims an estimated $14 billion over the same period, and you can see that calling wage theft an epidemic is no exaggeration.

Paying workers below the legal minimum wage, not paying for overtime hours worked, forcing workers to work off-the-clock or, for workers on federal contracts, not paying the proper wage rate for their occupation, are just some of the sleights-of -hand that employers engage in to cheat workers. Although all of these maneuvers are illegal, they are rarely punished. READ MORE AT THE HILL

Latinos are the fastest growing group of people 65 and older in the U.S. today. And the number of elderly Latinos with dementia is growing, too. Already, there aren’t enough bilingual, bicultural services to go around. That means increasingly, Latinos are going to have to leave work and other responsibilities to care for ailing family members.

Luis Sierra was already retired when his wife started to need care. That’s not typically the case, said Caroline Gelman, a social worker who does research on Latinos and Alzheimer’s at Hunter College in New York.

“While most caregivers for other groups, particularly white groups, tend to be the spouse, in Latino populations, they often are adult children,” Gelman explained. “That means that they have many competing obligations: work, their own families, their own children.”

A Met Life study found that caregivers 50 and older who leave the work force to care for a family member lose about $300,000 in income and benefits over a lifetime. To keep working, caregivers need adult daycare for their relatives, counseling, and other services. But those often aren’t available in Spanish, Gelman says. READ MORE AT MARKETPLACE

In advance of the holiday shopping season, BODEN, a cross-cultural communications agency, and QuestMindshare unveiled The Latina SmartPurse™. The Latina SmartPurse is an innovative research initiative focused on the Hispanic female in the U.S. This progressive research takes a deep dive into the modern Latina consumer, her influence, and what she expects from brands when making purchasing decisions.

"We are seeing a continental shift in Latina females and their role in our society and economy; they are playing many roles as business owners, mothers, cultural evangelists, and societal influencers," Natalie Boden, president, BODEN, says. "The Latina SmartPurse study shows us that there is no better time than now for brands to invest in Latinas as a key consumer segment within the U.S. landscape." READ MORE AT PRNEWSWIRE

Educational attainment among U.S. Latinos has been changing rapidly in recent years, reflecting the group’s growth in the nation’s public K-12 schools and colleges. Over the past decade, the Hispanic high school dropout rate has declined and college enrollment has increased, even as Hispanics trail other groups in earning a bachelor’s degree.

The issue of education is an important one for Hispanics. Roughly eight-in-ten (83%) cited education as very important to their vote in the 2016 election, ranking it alongside the economy, health care and terrorism as a top issue. READ MORE AT PEW RESEARCH CENTER

While Hispanics have median household income that’s about 20% lower than the overall median average, their sheer size means that they’re approaching $1 trillion in aggregate household income this year. That’s according to a new report from Geoscape, which looks at multicultural trends in the US.

The median household income for Hispanics this year is estimated to be close to $45k, below the $57k average. (More household income stats here.) Almost one-fifth (19%) of the US population identifies as Hispanic, and two-thirds of the Hispanic population hail from Mexico. READ MORE AT MARKETING CHARTS

Geoscape, the leading market intelligence company focused on new mainstream consumers and businesses, reported today that over 993,000 Hispanics within the United States will turn age 18 in calendar year 2015; a monthly average of about 83,000. Hispanics will account for nearly 23 percent of all persons turning 18 within the United States.

This total represents a compelling fact that emphasizes the growing importance of the US Hispanic market as both consumers and potential new voters. Hispanics are the majority in 342 counties, representing 18 percent of the American population and totaling more than 56 million nationwide in 2014. Their relative youth, growing influence and buying power present compelling reasons for business strategists to redefine their priorities. READ MORE AT BUSINESSWIRE

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