March 30, 2012 | 9:10 AM | By

Why Hispanics And Asians Had The Biggest Employment Gains

Unemployment has slowly dropped since the recession’s end in 2009, but not all groups are recovering at the same pace. Hispanics and Asians have had bigger job gains than whites and blacks. In fact, Hispanic and Asian employment rates are higher now than just before the recession began in 2007.

But such job gains mostly reflect rapidly growing Hispanic and Asian working-age populations; job growth has kept pace with the rise in adults. Whites and African Americans haven’t seen their working-age populations — defined as 16 or older — grow quite as quickly.


The story is the same when one looks at the jobs recovery for immigrants and native-born workers. Immigrants, the vast majority of whom are Hispanic or Asian, are experiencing a faster rate of growth in employment than are native-born workers. This difference is also roughly in line with the difference in the growth in their working-age populations during the recovery.

Read more at: pewresearch.org