economy (211)

Latinos poised to become economic force

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Over the past decade, Minnesota has seen a 38% increase in residents who identify as Latino or Hispanic. Amid a tight labor market, a new report suggests they could play a big role in bolstering the region's workforce.

This spring, the state Department of Economic and Employment Development issued findings that lay out opportunities and challenges for this population when it comes to economic well-being. For example, Latinos have the highest regional labor force participation rate of any race or origin group - but there are disparities, such as household income. READ MORE AT PUBLIC NEWS SERVICE

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This month, Republicans who control the Arizona fractious Legislature came together with Democrats in a moment of unusual bipartisan accord. They passed a bill that would let Arizona’s home cooks register with the state to legally sell perishable foods like salsas and tamales.

But Katie Hobbs, the state’s new Democratic governor, vetoed the measure last week, citing concerns about the potential for food-borne illnesses, as well as rats and insects in home kitchens. Her veto set off a ferocious culinary and cultural backlash from the Capitol to kitchens across Arizona, offering a political lesson for the new governor: Do not mess with the tamale makers. READ MORE AT THE NEW YORK TIMES

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The dream of homeownership is one shared by many Americans - yet it's a goal too often out of reach for people of color, said Otis Rolley, president of the Wells Fargo Foundation and head of Philanthropy and Community Impact. The reasons for the homeownership gap are many - including historic redlining, challenges to accessing credit and capital, public policy, and the real estate industry intentionally steering people of color away from certain communities and neighborhoods. READ MORE AT MORNINGSTAR

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How to attract more Latinos to work in tech

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Hispanic or Latino/Latinx communities are vastly underrepresented in the tech industry. According to 2020 US Census data, Hispanics account for 19% of the US population, the nation's second largest racial or ethnic group after non-Hispanic whites. While they hold 17% of all jobs in the US, that number falls to just eight percent of STEM roles. READ MORE AT DIGINOMICA

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Financial capability improved among Latinos

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Latino adults have gotten better over the past 12 years at budgeting, managing debt and building personal wealth, according to a new report by the foundation arm of Wall Street's brokerage regulator. But the Hispanic community still faces gaps in financial knowledge, the study found.

Fewer Latinos reported difficulty in paying expenses in 2021 compared to 2009 (50% versus 67%), according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's educational foundation. READ MORE AT FINANCIAL PLANNING

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Why Latino Entrepreneurs are growing rapidly

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“They’re very resilient. They wish for growth: they’re very ambitious, even in difficult times.” That’s Barbara Gomez-Aguinaga, associate director of the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative (SLEI) and lead author of SLEI’s latest State of Latino Entrepreneurship report.

According to SLEI, Latino business owners have for many years been outpacing their peers in terms of revenue and payroll growth. Annual growth rates in revenue and payroll were higher every year for Latino-owned businesses than for White-owned businesses through 2019. READ MORE AT FORBES

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Even though Latinos are the second-largest ethnic group in the U.S., they’re underrepresented across many industries, including finance, which can have long-term effects on the ability to grow wealth. Lack of access to capital markets makes it harder for Latinos to build meaningful wealth. It also means they’re underrepresented as shareholders of companies if they aren’t holding stocks and that they’re not lending a proportional voice to investing decisions. READ MORE AT CNBC

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Millennial age groups – born mid 1980s to early 2000s – now have more money at hand than they have ever controlled before. And they are spending it, says Olivia Johnson, assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Consumer Sciences at the University of Houston College of Technology.

Tech gear, cars, travel, fashion, furniture, houses, home security, insurance – everything young consumers might want and would likely need – form a retail turf being fought over by companies seeking to occupy that market segment. READ MORE AT UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON

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Tips to make volunteering a New Year's resolution

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Volunteering is in fashion around the holidays but many abandon it at year's end. And while it completely upended my professional life, I will owe my future career as a doctor to being a volunteer. Not everyone will change their profession as I did, but the power of volunteering is very real.

Still, oftentimes, the greatest barrier to being a volunteer is incorporating an activity into daily routines. A few of my favorite tips follow:

  • Make volunteering a family activity and incorporate it as a monthly outing like a movie night.
  • Swap a weekly workout with a volunteer activity.
  • Take on small projects that can be done at your own pace from home, like assembling care packages for women's shelters or homeless shelters.
  • Pair things you love to do with ways to help others: if you love technology, teach iPhone 101 at a senior center READ MORE AT SUN CITY WEST INDEPENDENT
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SPRINGFIELD – Workers in Illinois who participate in the Secure Choice retirement savings program have set aside more than $90 million of their own money for their retirement, Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs said today.

The accomplishment signals a growing recognition that workers understand Social Security will not provide enough income after their working days are over and reflects data that shows workers are more likely to save for retirement if they can do so through workplace payroll deductions.

“While each person has their own American dream, each dream includes a retirement with dignity and confidence,” Frerichs said. “Secure Choice can help accomplish both.”

The Illinois General Assembly created Secure Choice in 2015 and declared employers must either offer a retirement savings program or participate in Secure Choice. In doing so, lawmakers assured employers they would not be responsible for investment decisions and barred them from contributing to a worker’s account. Lawmakers also assured workers that their accounts would travel with them if they changed employers.

Lawmakers also created a seven-member board to oversee the program; determined that investments would be managed by the private sector; and assigned implementation of the savings program to the Illinois State Treasurer’s Office. Based on recommendations from the board, and with consultations with lawmakers, the program launched in 2018.

Today, 109,000 workers, many of whom never thought they could save for retirement, have worked with 7,400 employers to set aside $91 million.

Enrollment was apportioned by employer size so as not to overwhelm employers. Wave one in 2018 included employers with 500 or more employees. Wave two in 2019 included employers with 100-499 employees and another wave that same year included employers with 25-99 employees. The deadline for wave four, employers with 16 or more employees, was Nov. 1, 2022. The deadline for wave five, employers with five or more employees, is Nov. 1, 2023. Eligible employers can register or report an exemption at www.ilsecurechoice.com any time before their applicable deadline.

Secure Choice is critical because 40 percent of Illinois’ private-sector workers do not have access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan and 23 percent of retirees rely upon Social Security for 90 percent of their retirement income. The employer component is key because workers are 15 times more likely to save for retirement if they can do so through payroll deductions, according to an AARP study.

The default option for program participants is to enroll in a target-date Roth IRA with a five percent contribution rate. Participants can choose to change their contribution level or fund option at any time. Accounts are owned by individual participants and are portable from job-to-job. Investments are held in a separate trust outside the Illinois Treasury.

“This is a program that’s easy to implement and anything I can do to help my employees both professionally and personally is a win-win.” said Keely Selko, Office Manager at the Dearborn in Chicago, an early Secure Choice participating employer.

About the Illinois Treasurer

As Illinois State Treasurer, Michael Frerichs (FRAIR'-iks) is the state’s Chief Investment and Banking Officer and actively manages approximately $52 billion. The portfolio includes $26 billion in state funds, $17 billion in retirement and college savings plans and $9 billion on behalf of local and state governments. Frerichs’ office protects consumers by safeguarding more than $3.5 billion in unclaimed property, encouraging savings plans for college or trade school, increasing financial education among all ages, assisting people with disabilities to save without losing government benefits, and removing barriers to a secure retirement. The Treasurer’s Office predates Illinois incorporation in 1818. Voters in 1848 chose to make it an elected office.

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10 industries that overlook Latinx talent

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Jobs in STEM and media employ the least amount of Hispanic and Latinx workers, according to Credito en USA, a Spanish language personal finance insights platform. The company analyzed the 2021 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in order to identify the most underrepresented job titles for Hispanic and Latinx talent.

Biological scientists have the least amount of representation, as Hispanic and Latinx workers make up only 2.4% of the industry's workforce. Medical scientists, veterinarians and industrial engineers are also underrepresented fields, with Hispanic and Latinx workers making up just under 5% of the industries' overall workforce. READ MORE AT EBN

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The market for luxury brands is rapidly changing with a boom in the Hispanic consumer market, the fastest-growing demographic of households with incomes of $150k+, according to two new studies.

The rapidly rising affluence of Hispanics, their greater representation compared to other ethnicities in the top two quintiles, and the fact they are the fastest growing ethnicity bar none means they are an increasingly important demographic for brands to understand. READ MORE AT FORBES

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A new study finds Latina workers earn just over half what their white, male counterparts do. The study from the National Women's Law Center found that in 2021, Latinas working full time earned just 57 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men.

The study provides a breakdown by community of national origin. It finds that Spanish and Argentinian women earned the most on average at 82 cents for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic men. Honduran women earned the least at just 44 cents on the dollar. READ MORE AT HOUSTON PUBLIC MEDIA

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Hispanic enrollment at postsecondary institutions in the United States has seen an exponential increase over the last few decades, rising from 1.5 million in 2000 to a new high of 3.8 million in 2019 – partly reflecting the group’s rapid growth as a share of the overall U.S. population. 

The decline for Hispanics, and other racial and ethnic groups, in 2020 was driven by a drop in enrollment at two-year institutions. Hispanic enrollment at two-year colleges declined by about 230,000, or 15%, from 2019 to 2020. READ MORE AT PEW RESEARCH CENTER

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The economic state of Latinos in the U.S.

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Latinos account for the fastest-growing portion of US GDP. So much so, that if we considered US Latinos as their own country, it would be third only to the GDP growth rate of China and India in the past decade.1 At a time of economic uncertainty with concerns about a possible recession growing, consumers are looking for additional support.

Latinos are conscious of their impact, choosing brands that value the environment and their employees, all of which makes them more influential than their income levels would suggest. READ MORE AT MCKINSEY.COM

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Even before Claire Risoli decided to open up her own restaurant, she knew she would call it Pocha. “Pocha was something that I was called growing up that I hated,” she said. “It means Americanized Mexican girl, and for me, it always made me feel like I wasn’t enough.”

Latinos like Risoli account for 52% of all new employer businesses, according to the 2022 Latino Donor Collaborative U.S. Latino GDP report. The study also measured U.S. Latinos’ contributions to the economy known as the gross domestic product and found that it was worth $2.8 trillion in 2020. READ MORE AT SPECTRUM NEWS 1

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Latinos' influence on US economy

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The total economic output of Latinos across the U.S. was nearly $2.8 trillion in 2020, or more than 13% of the country’s GDP. Latino GDP was highest in the finance and real estate sector, which represented $460 billion of the total.As a group, however, the most significant data point in the report is what Latinos spend annually. In 2020, personal consumption accounted for nearly $14.1 trillion of the nation’s GDP and U.S. Latinos represented $1.84 trillion of that total.

Latino spending is greater than the economies of Canada or South Korea. Or in national terms, Latinos’ consumption rivals the entire economies of New York or Texas. READ MORE AT KEARNEY HUB

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3 out of 4 Latinos don't feel included at work

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Only about 25% of Latinos say they feel fully included at their workplaces, according to a new report from Bain & Company, a management consulting firm. Why does it matter? Latinos accounted for around 80% of workforce growth from 2010 to 2017, the fastest growing demographic. Seventy percent of Latino workers say inclusion is a critical factor when evaluating prospective employers, the study found. READ MORE AT AXIOS

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Seven out of 10 Americans attribute the country’s economic growth to Latino population growth, reflecting that U.S. Hispanics have the highest workforce contribution rate (65.6 percent) and have started the most small businesses out of any other population group over the last decade.

There are significant areas where misconceptions about the Latino workforce can be corrected:

• More than 75 percent of Americans believe Latino immigrants have a lot to offer this country and are an economic boost (Asian, 87 percent; Black, 85 percent; White, 76 percent).
• Many non-Latinos also believe undocumented immigrants are taking jobs Americans depend on (Asian, 55 percent; White, 53 percent; Black, 49 percent), though undocumented immigrants make up only 13 percent of all Latinos in the United States.
• The view that Latinos are farmworkers is prevalent, even among Latinos, who believe half of Latinos fit that description. A commonly held misperception is that “farmworker” describes more Latinos than “entrepreneurial or business-minded,” despite U.S. Latinos creating the most small businesses in the country over the last 10 years. READ MORE AT LOS ANGELES BUSINESS JOURNAL

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