For Immediate Release: Monday, October 3, 2011
Contact: Phoebe Silag or Karen Conner, news@epi.org 202-775-8810

Two New England cities have highest Hispanic unemployment rates

18 metro areas see increase of Hispanic unemployment from 2009 to 2010

Providence, Rhode Island and Hartford, Connecticut have the first (25.2%) and second (23.5%) highest unemployment rates, respectively, for Hispanics among 38 large metropolitan areas* nationwide, according to a report released today by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). 

After Providence and Hartford, the metropolitan areas with the next highest Hispanic unemployment rates are Fresno, CA, (21.1 %); Las Vegas, NV (19.4 %); Bakersfield and Riverside, CA tied (18.4 % for both); Orlando, FL (16.4 %); San Francisco, CA (14.3%); Los Angeles, CA (13.4%); and Tampa, FL (13.2%).

“Even though the economy is in an official recovery, 18 of the 38 metro areas in the study saw an increase in Hispanic unemployment of over one percentage point since 2009,” said Algernon Austin, director of EPI’s program on race and ethnicity and author of the report, Hispanic unemployment rates in metropolitan areas around the country.

The key findings of the study are:

·         In 2010, the two highest Hispanic metropolitan unemployment rates were in New England: Hispanic unemployment was 25.2 percent in Providence, R.I., and 23.5 percent in Hartford, Connecticut. For Providence, 2010 was the second year in a row Hispanics had an unemployment rate over 20 percent.

·         Hispanics in the Hartford metropolitan area were 3.4 times as likely as whites to be unemployed. In Providence, Hispanics were 2.5 times as likely as whites to be unemployed.

·         Five California metropolitan areas made it into the top 10 metropolitan areas with the highest Hispanic unemployment rates: Fresno, Bakersfield, Riverside, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

·         Six Texas metropolitan areas were among the 10 with the lowest Hispanic unemployment rates: Laredo, Corpus Christi, San Antonio, El Paso, Houston, and Austin.

·         Washington, D.C., had the lowest Hispanic unemployment rate.

 “The findings from EPI’s study are a reminder that while the jobs crisis affects the entire nation, many communities are facing a true state of emergency,” said Catherine Singley, Senior Policy Analyst at the National Council of La Raza—the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States.  “Government cannot stand on the sidelines when so many are denied a chance at the American Dream.  Beginning with the President’s jobs bill, policymakers must take bold action to create jobs, with deliberate measures to target areas hit hardest by unemployment.”

* Unemployment rate estimates were created for metropolitan areas that had a sufficient Hispanic sample size in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Population Survey for reliable estimates in 2007.

For analysis of African American unemployment by metro area, see:  High black unemployment no longer concentrated in rustbelt cities

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