Latinas contributed to $1.3 trillion in GDP in 2021 (Gross Domestic Product), according to an inaugural report.
The report shows that Latinas entering the U.S. workforce are overwhelmingly second—and third-generation Americans, many of whom build on the work ethic of their immigrant elders.
GDP is the value of the total final output of goods and services produced by that economy in a certain period.
When the GDP grows, “it just offers benefits for everyone,” said Dr. David Hayes-Bautista, the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture director at the School of Medicine at UCLA and co-author of the report.
It leads to an increased standard of living, higher wages, increased economic mobility, and more.
From 2010 to 2021, the number of Hispanic females in the U.S. labor force grew by 32.9%, compared to only 2.7% for non-Hispanic females.
This makes Latinas responsible for over 20 percent of the growth of the U.S. labor force since 2010.
Part of this increase is due to higher rates in educational attainment despite many Latinas facing large amounts of student debt.
“Over 50 percent [of Latinas] went on to college versus only a third of their moms,” Hayes-Bautista said. “That’s much higher human capital and a huge leap in just one generation and on top of that, in terms of human capital, they’re born here, they’re U.S. citizens, they don’t have to deal with naturalization, they don’t have to worry about deportation, they are fluently bilingual.”
The increase also has to do with the rate in which Latinas enter the workforce.
“For every immigrant Latina that ages-out of the labor force, two [U.S. born Latinas] age-in,” Hayes-Bautista said. “Whereas with the non-hispanic white, for every non-hispanic white mother that leaves [and] ages out of the labor force, less than 9/10ths of one enters.”
This creates a “sling-shot effect” of Latinas who can be “far more productive” than their mothers, Hayes-Bautista said.
“Now their mothers helped to create the fifth largest economy by the way!” he added with a smile.
Hayes-Bautista pointed to how Latinos have been “economically active” in what is now the United States since 1513, even though the first time the government added the “Hispanic” option under the ethnicity category wasn’t until 1980.
Research is yet to be done on which industry sectors Latinas most commonly are a part of but reports on Latinos show they are in diverse sectors like transportation, warehousing, and retail trade.
“That’s important because it actually means that Latinos provide a broad foundation of support,” said Dr. Matthew Fienup, an economist and co-author of the report. “They provide economic resilience.”
Moreover, the report was based on publicly available data from major U.S. agencies such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census.
But “the caveat” is that “Latinos are under-sampled in those data programs,” Fienup said.
In 2020, the decennial census “was very revealing” because it showed that they “discovered” a million and a half “new” Latinos that year, Fienup said.
In reality, they were undocumented workers who had not been previously counted in the census that is done every 10 years.
This meant that economists and researchers had to calculate backwards from the previous nine years to ensure the figures were accurate.
“We now know the slope of the line was too shallow,” Fienup said. “It was actually steeper.”
While there remain systemic barriers that prevent working undocumented immigrants to be counted, Fienup suggested that “the economic impact of Latinos is at least as big as what we document.”
“In fact, we have reason to think it’s significantly higher,” he added.
In order to continue to see the growth in GDP, Fienup said there needs to be “investments” within the Latino community.
This includes ensuring Latinos have access to quality education, healthcare, credit, capital and more.
These resources will create a domino effect, allowing Latinos to increase their homeownership rates and grow their businesses more rapidly.
Hayes-Bautista said he projects Latinas will continue to give life to the economy regardless because many have become mothers whose daughters will eventually join the workforce.
“One million babies were born 16 years ago in the United States, they just turned 16 this year. And there was a million babies born the next year.” Hayes-Bautista said. “This has nothing to do with immigration, it’s a natural increase and it’s going to continue for at least another 30 years.”