The Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC) released a report this week that examines the contributions Latina workers make to the U.S. economy, as well as the challenges they face.
Latinas represent more than 17 percent of all women in the labor force – the second-largest group of female workers in the U.S. labor market after white women. In 2021, the labor force participation rate of Hispanic women exceeded that of their white counterparts, the report stated.
However, Latinas experienced a disproportionate share of pandemic job losses, mainly due to the fact that Hispanic women predominantly work in industries that were hardest hit by the pandemic and recession. Specifically, the unemployment rate for Hispanic women peaked at 20.1 percent in April 2020 — higher than that of men or women in any other racial or ethnic group.
