Despite Challenges, Latino Economic Power is Growing

This year’s campaign season featured pernicious arguments that Latinos, and Latino immigrants in particular, were a drain on the U.S. economy. But a new study commissioned by the Latino Donor Collaborative (LDC) and the Royal Bank of Canada debunks these arguments and provides evidence that Latinos in the United States play a key role in the economic growth and vitality of the nation.

The report, "Making America Rich Again: The Latino Effect on Economic Growth," was authored by Jeffrey Eisenach, Ph.D., SVP at NERA Economic Consulting, provides a comprehensive analysis of Latino demographics and economic activity.

Among the report's key findings are:

• Latinos are responsible for 29 percent of the growth in real income since 2005. They account for roughly 10 cents of every dollar of US national income, and that proportion is rising both due to growth in the Latino population and rising per capita earnings.
• Latinos play a critical role in the labor force, both as employees and, especially, as job creators and entrepreneurs. They are more likely to participate in the labor force (65.9 percent vs. 62.7 percent) and to be employed (61.6 percent vs. 59.3 percent) than the overall US population.
• The Latino poverty rate is falling more rapidly than it is for the rest of the U.S. population.

“We think this report does a good job of providing a quantitative answer to so much of the anti-Latino nonsense we have heard over the last several months in our political campaigns,” said Hispanic Federation President José Calderón. “The data presented by this report should be a wake-up call that Latinos will be at the forefront of the economic growth and dynamism of the United States for decades to come.”

The report provides important insights into wealth and the Latino community that should be useful to Latino philanthropies. “The report will be really useful to a number of stakeholders, especially those of us working in the philanthropic world,” Calderón said. “We know that Latinos have the financial resources that can help improve our communities.”

For a copy of Making America Rich Again: The Latino Effect on Economic Growth go to http://www.nera.com/publications.html.