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 Business News | January 2008 
Arizona Work Force is Heavily Hispanic
 Howard Fischer - Capitol Media Services
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| | Omar Leyba works as part of a Granite Construction Co. crew installing sidewalks and ramps along Duval Mine Road in Sahuarita. Hispanic workers like him make up more than four in 10 in Arizona construction, a new study found. (Kelly Presnell /Arizona Daily Star) | | |
Phoenix — The Pew Hispanic Center released a study of Arizona's Hispanic work force this week in response to the enactment of the state's employer-sanctions law Jan. 1.
The study, conducted using information from both the U.S. Census Bureau and Pew's own analysts, was designed to not only provide the most up-to-date figures but also compare Arizona with the rest of the nation.
"Foreign-born workers, especially of Mexican origin, play a larger role in Arizona than in the nation," the study reads. "These workers tend to have lower levels of education and are concentrated in blue-collar industries and occupations."
Hispanic population
By the numbers
Foreign-born Hispanics as percent of Arizona employment, by occupation:
13.9 percent - Foreign-born Hispanics in Arizona's work force.
64.2 percent - Farming, fishing, forestry
49.7 percent - Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance
43.3 percent - Construction trades
26.4 percent - Production
25.7 percent - Food preparation and serving
Source: Pew Hispanic Center
Labor force snapshot (2006)
Category AZ U.S.
Total* 2,942 151,211
Hispanic 27.2% 13.8%
Foreign-born Hispanic 13.9% 7.6%
All foreign born 18.8% 15.6%
Non citizens 13.3% 9.0%
Unauthorized 9.4-10.5% 4.9%
*in thousands
Source: Pew Hispanic Center |
According to the report, 29.1 percent of all Arizonans in 2006 were Hispanic, double the national figure.
Of that, more than a half of those were not born in this country. And most of those are not citizens.
It also found that the number of Hispanics in the state has grown three times as fast as the non-Hispanic population since the beginning of the decade.
Work-force breakdown
Up to 10.5 percent of the state work force's in 2006 — more than 300,000 people — came here illegally, according to a new study. That's double the national average.
The report also found that 18 percent of the more than 2.9 million people in the labor force were not born in the United States. The balance are presumed to be legal residents.
Top job sectors
Specifically, the report says that foreign-born workers make up almost two-thirds of total employment in farming and forestry, half of building and grounds cleaning and maintenance, and more than 40 percent of those in construction trades.
And a quarter of those in food preparation and serving were not born in this country.
Male, less educated
The statistics also show that while the state's population is almost evenly divided between men and women, 55 percent of foreign-born Hispanics are male. And the share of males is even higher among recent immigrants, totaling in excess of 60 percent.
Latinos in general, whether native-born or not, also are less educated than the population in general. Pew Hispanic figures that fewer than 47 percent of Arizonans of working age have a high school education or less; for Latinos, the figure exceeds 70 percent. |
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