September 15th through October 15th is Hispanic Heritage Month. As noted in our\u00a0Latino Racial Wealth Snapshot<\/a>, almost 19% of Americans are Hispanic and while their population has\u00a0almost doubled in number since\u00a0<\/a>2020<\/a>\u00a0they remain far less wealthy than non-Hispanic White Americans. From college attainment to homeownership to income, Hispanics in the US\u00a0lag behind\u00a0the national average. The\u00a0Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) monthly jobs report<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0ADP National Employment Report<\/a>\u00a0provide a deep look into employment and income. The BLS September monthly report has unemployment at 3.4% for White workers, 5.7% for Black workers, 2.8% for Asian workers and 4.6% for Hispanic workers.<\/p>\n In this edition of our\u00a0Race,\u00a0Jobs\u00a0and the Economy series, we give an overview of the most recent BLS employment situation with an emphasis on key insights related to Hispanic workers.<\/p>\n As the fastest growing demographic in the United States, Hispanics are quite ubiquitous in the labor force yet have distinct employment trends and face unique challenges in the labor market compared to other groups.<\/p>\n The economy added roughly 336,000 jobs for an average of 267,000 for the past 12 months. September\u2019s job creation nearly doubled the economists\u2019 consensus expectation that just 170,000 jobs would be added nationwide. The news is even brighter, in fact: BLS also revised upward its total job growth for July and August by some 119,000\u00a0previously-missed\u00a0net new jobs. This strong growth is helping to keep all racial\/ethnic groups at historically low levels of unemployment. Additionally,\u00a0The\u00a0unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.8%, a historically low figure.<\/p>\n The industries with the largest employment gains in September were leisure and hospitality (+96,000), government (+73,000), healthcare (+41,000) and professional and business services (+21,000). The largest sectoral decline in jobs came in trade, transportation, and utilities (-20,000). Notably, BLS\u2019s finding that high-paying business and professional jobs\u00a0increased in September contradicts a separate\u00a0ADP report<\/a>\u00a0finding that the economy\u00a0shed<\/em>\u00a032,000 of t\u00a0hose jobs over the month. Additionally, BLS\u2019s upward revision of 119,000 jobs for July and August \u2013 is another indication that the slowdown reported by ADP may be premature or short lived.<\/p>\n As we noted in our previous article in this series, policymakers should pay close attention in the coming months to sectoral trends in temporary help services, or workers on temporary contracts. When employers begin shedding these workers,\u00a0it may be an early recession warning indicator.<\/p>\n This alarm bell has been buzzing quietly for a year. The number of temporary workers has declined since October of 2022, a worrisome trend which continued in September. A similar decline occurred before the official start of the 2007 and 2001 recessions.\u00a0BLS data<\/a>\u00a0has also shown that temporary workers are disproportionately people of color, with Hispanic workers making up almost 18% of all temporary workers. In some occupational categories they account for almost 38% of the temporary workforce.<\/p>\nAnalysis of Topline Figures in September BLS Report<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Jobs & Sectoral Trends<\/strong><\/h3>\n