Mateo Pierce-Mosquera, a 24-year old Latino, graduated in 2021 from the University of Southern Carolina. After graduating he moved to Washington D.C., far from his native Illinois, where immediately he realized the importance of networking.
“The relationships you form are essential to getting a job, I realized that I needed to get into certain spaces to meet people, network and build a rapport with them” said Pierce-Mosquera.
An increasing number of Latinos are continuing to graduate from college, but continue to remain at the lowest earnings tier below White, Black and Asian employees. The data suggests that Latinos face a harder labor market that is not free of discrimination and an unequal access to opportunities, the disparity further increases for Latina women, which is why financial education, mentorship and networking opportunities have played an essential role in improving the playing field for Latinos.
Over the past 30 months the U.S. unemployment rate has remained at or below 4% indicating a strong job market.
Yet, according to data reported by the Economic Policy Institute, the unemployment rates for young college graduates by race/ethnicity shows Hispanic people are at a 7.6% starkly compared to the 5.1% rate of White college graduates.
Likewise the unemployment rates for young high school graduates by race/ethnicity shows Hispanic employees are at a 12% unemployment rate compared to the 9.5% for White high school graduates.
“When you look at people coming straight out of school, they don’t really have the opportunity to build up a long work history or get other kinds of advanced degrees and yet you still see not a small wage gap and similarly the unemployment rate.” says Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
In both cases there is a 2.5 percentage point difference between Hispanic graduates and White graduates. This data suggests factors like discrimination and unequal access to networking and job opportunities play a significant role, since the workers have the same level of education and are in the same labor market position.
“Discrimination plays a role, also where people live and what kinds of jobs people are trying to get, but that is also because of historical discrimination in the labor market.” says Gould
Even when Latino students go and make those investments they continue to face a much more difficult labor market than their counterparts.
According to a 2023 study done by the Pew Research center Hispanic men and women have seen the fastest growth in advanced degrees since 2000. The number of Hispanic men rose 291% between the year 2000 and 2021, likewise the rate of Hispanic women with advanced degrees rose by 199%.
In the same study it was found that more Hispanic women hold graduate degrees than Hispanic men, at 1,370,000 million Hispanic women outnumber the 1,080,000 million Hispanic men.
“We do have more female scholars who apply and get into our scholarship program, in general the demographics for our scholarship is about 67% female, a significantly higher rate than the counterparts” said Chris Aviles, senior program manager of partner college and scholar supports at TheDream.US
TheDream.US is an organization that dedicates itself to funding the education and empowerment of immigrant students across the U.S. through scholarship programs.
Aviles says “The number one challenge in being able to obtain a higher education degree is financial, so we want to be the bridge to help them achieve those goals.”
For the 2023-2024 school year TheDream.US enrolled 4,000 students, of those students the top industries of work are health and medicine, education and business graduates.
Although Hispanic women are getting degrees the disparities in the workforce increase between latino men and women, the latter being on the lower end of the pay scale.
According to the April 2024 Usual weekly earnings summary reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, during the 1st quarter the average median weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers for Hispanic women was $825 a week compared to their Hispanic male counterparts at $879 a week.
Median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by race, Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, and sex, 1st quarter 2024 averages, not seasonally adjusted
Overall hispanics remain at the lowest average full-time weekly earnings rate compared to that of White, Black and Asian employees.
Growing up Pierce-Mosquera joined many leadership and development organizations like AVID, Advancement Via Individual Determination and LASO, the Latin American Student Organization which shaped his path. Pierce-Mosquera realized that in order to get an opportunity, he would have to meet the right people so he attended a legislative conference held by LULAC in 2023.
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is one of the largest and oldest Latino civil rights organizations across the United States. LULAC spans nearly 535 councils with over 140,000 members, committed to empowering Latinos across multiple fronts such as health, education, economic advocacy, and civil rights.
Throughout the year LULAC organizes two major events: a national legislative conference and a national convention; these gatherings are pivotal for addressing pressing issues affecting Latinos and allow Latinos the opportunity to foster connections with key corporate sponsors.
Through the people Pierce-Mosquera met at the LULAC legislative conference, he was able to land his first legislative internship and through future connections he was able to get to his current job at the United States Hispanic Business Council.
The importance of community and networking is at the center of job searching so various nationwide and local organizations have dedicated themselves to helping Latinos rise.
In Oklahoma, the Latino Community Development Agency focuses on bettering the lives of local Oklahoma city residents through health, education scholarships and youth development programs. For the 2024-2025 term LCDA has awarded 39 recipients with $53,500 in scholarship money.
“We want to provide a pipeline of eligible and skillful young people and introduce them to the workforce” said Salvador Ontiveros, President and CEO of LCDA
