Employment status and earnings of Hispanics in the United States

Hispanic people are the largest minority in the U.S. They are composed of the following ethnic subgroups regardless of race: Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican, Central American, South American, and Other Latinos. In 2015, there were about 57 million Hispanics and Latinos in the U.S., constituting 17% of the population. Over 40% of them live in the West, 37% in the South, 14% in the Northeast, and 9% in the Midwest. The U.S. census projected that Hispanic people will comprise 29% of the total population in 2016. On the other hand, the non-Hispanic white population, which in 2015 was the majority group at 63%, is projected to fall to 44% by 2060. It is therefore warranted to know how Hispanics fare and how they compare with non-Hispanic whites.

In this paper we analyze two basic labor market outcomes of the Hispanic population in the U.S., namely employment and earnings. We estimate employment and earnings regressions for Hispanics and compare them to non-Hispanic whites in order to assess changes in the returns to education and experience across the U.S. The employment models include age, age squared, education, experience, marital status, birthplace, citizenship, and period of U.S. entry. The earnings models will also include occupational status. We also want to document changes in any earnings penalties associated with gender, birthplace, and national origin. Regression models will be estimated to predict labor market as a means of identifying likely barriers to the Hispanic socioeconomic mobility. Our analysis relies primarily on data from the Public Use Microdata Samples (PUMS) of the decennial censuses for 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000 and data from the American Community Survey (ACS) for 2010 and 2015, supplemented by data drawn from the Current Population Survey (CPS).

Our preliminary results show that Hispanics have made a lot of progress over the years. They are very much attached to the U.S. labor market and work hard. They also fare well. Their earnings have been steadily increasing over the years. U.S. citizenship plays a significant role in their earnings. However, compared to non-Hispanic Whites, Hispanics are lagging behind.