Now we'll see some action!

It has taken a long time to get Bush to say the word “recession.” (He’s a stubborn one, isn’t he?)

But I read a recent Pew report that is sure to get the politicians to line up at the microphones and demand some action on the economy.

I refer you to a June report from Pew Hispanic Center entitled: “Latino Labor Report 2008.”

The alarm has been sounded.

“Due mainly to a slump in the construction industry, the unemployment rate for Hispanics in the U.S. rose to 6.5% in the first quarter of 2008, well above the 4.7% rate for all non-Hispanics.”

The gap between Hispanic and white unemployment was approaching one half of one percent. Now it is nearly two percent.

But wait…it gets worse. Foreign-born Hispanic unemployment rates are even higher at 7.5%.

And horror of horrors…Mexican-born unemployment is higher still, at 8.4%.

Hold on, folks. Immigrants who have arrived since 2000 have the worst unemployment rate of all at 9.3%

Now, how many of these good folks are illegal aliens? Here’s what the report says about it: “This report is not able to identify immigrant workers by whether they are documented or undocumented because the immigration status of workers is not recorded in the source data. However, estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center show that unauthorized migrants account for about 5% of the U.S. labor force and about one-third of the foreign-born labor force. They are overrepresented in certain industries such as construction, where they account for 12% of employment (Passel, 2006). Most unauthorized migrants are from Latin American countries, with those from Mexico accounting for about 55% of the total.”

With all this bad news Washington will surely take action. We can’t tolerate this kind of economic news. Just watch for Dick Durbin to call a press conference on this matter.

The link to the Pew Report is a 39 page pdf: http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/88.pdf