That Latino businesses are one of the most dynamic sectors of the U.S. economy is not a secret. Almost by definition, an immigrant is an entrepreneur. With 3.1 million Latino companies that generate revenue of nearly half a trillion dollars, they are the workhorse of the American economy.
Latino business, most of them small, play an important role in job creation; due its demographic value –between 1990 and 2008 Latino population grew six times faster than the rest of the country, 106 % vs. 14 %; and because its importance as a consumer market –$ 1.5 trillion by 2015, it is not an exaggeration to say that the future of the U.S. economy depends heavily on the performance of Latino entrepreneurs.
And the challenge is a big one: nowadays we are witnesses of the transition from the globalization of the products and markets to the globalization of services and labor. Outsourcing has reached a point that, according to several experts, one third of U.S. workers (expensive) could be replaced by workers from elsewhere in the world (inexpensive).
Partly because of this the labor market in this country experiences a dizzying transformation: from formal employment for life (at least several decades) with several important benefits to new, very short duration, forms of employment without treats. Various studies estimate that by 2020 about 40 % of the labor force will work on the basis of the new reality, the part time economy.
Which, of course is not big news to millions of Latino entrepreneurs whom, for long have been offering their products and services based on models in which retirement pension, medical coverage provided by the employer and many of the prerogatives of the old economy are only a vague reference; almost literature.
Entrepreneurs by principle, immigrants – of which roughly half came from Latin America – constitute a segment of the population better prepared to deal with the new economic reality of this country, and much of the global economy.
Between 2002 and 2007 – the latest available census figures on the subject – the number of Hispanic-owned businesses grew by 46% (in the same period their income grew even more, 58%). It is a fact that Latino businesses respond better to a new economic reality where productivity depends more on horizontal and flexible relations.
While the political elite demonstrates their inability to solve the nation major challenges (like an immigration reform) or even build basic legislative consensus necessary for effective governance, immigrants are still one of the pillars of the creation of jobs and wealth in the country.
An immigrant or child of immigrants founded about 40% of companies in the Fortune 500 list. In addition, immigrants have a greater presence in the labor market: 60.7 % of workers 16 and older born outside the country, have a job. Immigrants are 13 % of the population but represent 16 % of the country’s workforce.
Despite the evident challenges for many uneducated and newly arrived, the important economic advancement of Latinos in recent years allows that 40 % of their families get an annual income above the national average ($ 50,000). And among Latino business owners, the age rises to 56 %. Moreover, one in three Latino entrepreneurs have an annual income exceeding $ 100,000.
In this, our eighth edition, we invite you to continue reading us, ask you to share our magazine with other and start using our new platforms that will arrive in no time. We remain convinced that our agenda for the full integration of newcomers to it, their new country, it is more relevant than ever. Hopefully the evidence of Latino success will help to push the political establishment in the right direction.
November 2013
