New data from the U.S. Department of Labor indicate that new job growth is occurring in industries where Hispanic workers have a strong presence, said a study from National Council of La Raza. The service sector accounted for the bulk of the 192,000 new jobs between January and February 2011, thanks to industries such as administrative and waste services, nursing and residential care, and trucking. But, despite these positive signs, worrisome trends and public opinion call for policies to improve the employment prospects for vulnerable workers.

Latinos are overrepresented in all sub-industries fueling the growth of the transportation and warehousing sector. This includes trucking, which accounted for half of the new job growth in this industry. Employment services -which includes temporary help service- is an industry that has experienced consistent growth over the last year and employs a disproportionately large share of Latinos.

But the news is not all good for Hispanic workers. February was the third month in a row in which Latinos exited the labor force and consequently were not counted among the unemployed. This fact probably contributed to the slightly lower Latino unemployment rate in February.

A new Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation-Harvard University poll confirms that Latinos are more likely than other workers to have “given up looking for work because of a lack of good jobs.” In the same poll, Latinos were more likely to express anxiety about their job security; 33% of Latinos, 22% of Blacks, and 20% of Whites report feeling insecure about their jobs.

Source: National Council of La Raza, “Latinos Well-Represented in Growth Industries, Insecure in Employment”, March 2011.