Hispanics/Latinos & Income

Latinos say they and their loved ones have faced widespread job losses and serious illness due to COVID-19. Yet satisfaction with the nation’s direction is at highest level in a decade as most say the worst of the pandemic is behind us.

As the nation’s economy contracted at a record rate in recent months, the group’s unemployment rate rose sharply, particularly among Hispanic women, and remains higher among Hispanic workers than U.S. workers overall.

The drop in employment in three months of the COVID-19 recession is more than double the drop effected by the Great Recession over two years.

Around half of Hispanics say they or someone in their household has taken a pay cut or lost a job – or both – because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Hispanics are more concerned than Americans overall about the threat COVID-19 poses to Americans' health, their own finances and daily life.

The overall gain in income among Latino workers is driven by a rise in the share of higher-income immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for more years. Yet the incomes of U.S.-born Latinos are still less than since the recession began.

The unemployment rate for U.S. Hispanics hit 4.7% in the second quarter of 2017. However, U.S. Latinos have not fully recovered from the Great Recession.

Latinos made progress on household income, poverty and jobs in 2015 after years of little or no economic gains, but they have lagged in building personal wealth.

While Hispanics are on the same page with the overall population about the importance of the economy, they are more positive about its condition and their family’s finances than some other racial and ethnic groups.

Hispanics have become more upbeat about their personal finances and their financial future since the Great Recession, with 81% saying that they expect their family's financial situation to improve in the next year.