Thread: Hispanic Immigrants Fill Nearly 40% Of New Jobs

http://www.tampatrib.com/FloridaMetro/MGB6XZ72I8E.html

Hispanic Immigrants Fill Nearly 40% Of New Jobs

By CHRIS ECHEGARAY cechegaray@tampatrib.com
Published: May 9, 2005

PLANT CITY - Joselyn Montecinos counted the flour and corn tortillas and, depending on the packaging, placed 16 or 20 of them into a plastic bag.
She smiled politely, standing next to her aunt, the buzz of the machinery mass- producing tortillas a constant. At other stations, more Hispanic workers boxed and loaded the goods.

``We like to work,'' Montecinos, a native of El Salvador, said in Spanish, never stopping her count. ``My aunt helped me find this job.''

Mexicans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans and Puerto Ricans - all work at El Mirasol Inc., which is Florida's largest distributor of tortillas, wraps and chips. Most make minimum wage, now $6.15, or slightly more.

Large numbers of unskilled Hispanic immigrants are fueling competition for such jobs and prompted a slight reduction in wages nationwide, according to the Pew Hispanic Center's Latino Labor Report 2004 released this month.

At the same time, job creation favored foreign-born Hispanics. Of the 2.5 million new jobs created last year, 1 million went to Hispanics, and almost all were taken by newly arrived immigrants.

The trend nationally and locally has Hispanics working in construction, housekeeping and lawn care.

There are about 20 million Latinos - 9 million of them immigrants - in the American workforce, with many of them in low-skilled occupations, the report said. The growth of this sector hurts a population that already is living at or below the poverty level.

The median weekly wage for foreign-born Hispanics in 2004 was $384, according to the Pew report. For those who entered the country in 2000 or later, the figure was $320. The report didn't specify the number of hours worked to reach that wage.

It also didn't offer a solution or predict whether competition will ease up or continue driving down wages.

Native-born Hispanics were replaced by foreign-born Hispanics in several industries. For instance, the report showed native-born Hispanics left 44,000 jobs last year in the personal and laundry services and private household services industries. At the same time, foreign-born Hispanics gained 41,000 jobs in the same fields.

Guillermo Gama, owner of El Mirasol, said that is a prime example of why a flow of immigrant workers is needed.

On average, two people a day show up at the Airport Road plant inquiring about jobs, Gama said. In 1995, Gama had 48 employees at the plant. Now he has 150. Plenty are low-skilled laborers, he said, but there is a need for skilled workers. Gama, who also owns Mi Casa restaurant in Plant City, said he has to train bakers, cooks, servers and other skilled positions.

Gama said there are workers who stay in the country and over time move up economically, leaving farm work and other low-level jobs behind to pursue better opportunities.

``They are not going to do that all their lives,'' Gama said. ``Their kids already tell them that they are not going to clean houses or do farm work. So there is always going to be a need for new immigrants.''

The Tampa-St. Petersburg- Clearwater area gained about 37,000 jobs in 2004, leading the state job growth in nonagricultural employment, according to the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation.

Michael Garcia, a researcher with the Tampa Bay Workforce Alliance, said the group doesn't track workers by race or ethnicity, but anecdotally he knows many of the new jobs are being filled by Hispanics.

``There's been a lot of growth, and you can see it in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods: in Plant City, in the South Shore and southeast part of the county''


Reporter Chris Echegaray can be reached at (813) 259-7154.


The article doesn't mention the word 'illegal', but in my opinion, I bet this article is based on many illegals. It seems like the like a disproportunate number of hispanics who are gaining employment, while Americans are finding themselves squeezed out of certain jobs.

Of course many are ILLEGAL............
and their kids don't want to work in the fields so
THEY WANT IN-STATE TUITION...........NOW!