Latinos land 2 in 3 U.S. construction jobs

[Phx_Dem]

WASHINGTON, March 7 (UPI) -- Latinos make up 13.6 percent of the U.S. employment population, but accounted for 36.7 percent of the 2006 U.S. employment growth, a study showed Wednesday.

Most of the jobs Hispanic workers landed were in the construction industry, the Pew Hispanic Center said.

In fact, two out of every three new U.S. constriction jobs went to Hispanic workers, the center said.

Hispanic employment increased by almost 1 million from 2005 to 2006, with foreign-born Latinos who arrived since 2000 responsible for about 24 percent of the total U.S. employment increase.

Undocumented immigrants accounted for about two-thirds of the increase in recently arrived Hispanic workers, the center estimated.

The center derived its estimates from Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census Bureau data, it said.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Business/latinos_land_2_in_3_us_construction_jobs/20070307-073624-4659r/

[NashVegas]

1. "Americans Don't Want Those Crap Jobs"

..

[acmavm]

3. Yeah, and immigrants aren't affecting the ability of Americans

to earn a living either.

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. But don't worry, they're only taking the jobs of the uneducated.

:sarcasm:

[Breeze54]

17. Yes they do!

;)

But Mitt Romney has no problem with hiring them, personnally and for government construction jobs!

Illegal immigrants toiled for governor

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/12/01/illegal_immigrants_toiled_for_governor/

As Governor Mitt Romney explores a presidential bid, he has grown outspoken in his criticism of illegal immigration.
But, for a decade, the governor has used a landscaping company that relies heavily on workers like these,
illegal Guatemalan immigrants, to maintain the grounds surrounding his pink Colonial house on Marsh Street in Belmont.

The Globe recently interviewed four current and former employees of Community Lawn Service with a Heart,
the tiny Chelsea-based company that provides upkeep of Romney's property.
All but one said they were in the United States illegally.

More...

There's a lot of citizens that would like those jobs, imho!

[Roland99]

20. Well, from what I've seen lately in new home construction, the work being done *is* crap!

Nothing even coming close to being a 90-degree angle in the framing of most homes these days.

[Thothmes]

38. Work Done

I agree. But from what I have seen in my local area, the ethnicity of the framing crew has almost no bearing on the quality of construction. The framing sub-contractors hire inexperienced workers, knowing that they can show them just enough carpentry to get the job done. This keeps their operating costs down. When you see a two story house framed in one work day, you can bet sound construction principles such as plumb, level and square have been abandoned in the name of low labor costs.

[Roland99]

39. Which is why if I decide to build a new home next spring....

I'm using my Dad as a project mgr/general contractor. He did a lot of the construction on his home, himself, and several contractors made mention they couldn't believe how well-constructed the framing was.

[SteppingRazor]

2. They took our jobs!

[Crandor]

4. South Park is right-wing propaganda

You can't talk about global warming anymore without their idiot fans bringing up that "Manbearpig" crap. I can see that Parker and Stone have the same attitude toward labor issues as they do toward environmentalism - total conformity to the views of the corporate elites.

[SteppingRazor]

11. Oh brother...

Yes, I'm sure the right-wing is perfectly happy with the way South Park made Republican voters look in the episode I referenced. Or in how it's made religion look many, many times — the priest-molesation episode springs immediately to mind, but there are many other examples. Or how about the anti-hunting episode ("It's comin' right for us!"), one of the first issue-related episodes of the show?

South Park is not right-wing propaganda. It's a Rorsacht test. The easily offended see it as propaganda for the other side, while thicker-skinned folks see it as lampooning the other side. For every time it castigates the left, there's another time where it tears apart the right.

As far as South Park's view of environmentalism, certainly the Al Gore episode was on the other side, but consider the episode in which Mr. Hanky drowns the town in sewage — an episode that certainly had a pro-environmental message.

[Deja Q]

30. If only we could all be corporate businesses...

We'd still get bought out by the larger ones and made to serve anyway...

Trey and parker are thick.

Often not wrong in their opinions, but they're thick. Libertarian thick...

Their Al Gore manbearpig episode was pretty stupid too; because it doesn't know how to lampoon or parody. Jumped the shark a long time ago; utterly out of steam.

[Bronyraurus]

37. Good god

Pull your head out of your butt.

[kimmylavin]

6. Ha!

I just watched that one!
Shouldn't it be "They tuk err jubs!"? :)

[HereSince1628]

7. I seem to remember the "Damn the Irish!" and "Don't let a ____ take a white man's job!"

Just saying. This sentiment isn't unique to Hispanic immigratin.

[Breeze54]

12. You remember "Damn the Irish!"?

How old are you anyway?

:eyes:

[HereSince1628]

13. Hey, I remember seeing it in a MOVIE! That's even good enough for the Millennium generation

who could cut it out and put it on a Youtube video.

:hi:

[Breeze54]

21. My grandparents lived it.

"Irish need not apply"

Read more.... http://allaboutirish.com/library/diaspora/imm-slaves.htm

[HereSince1628]

28. One of my grandfathers always complained about it but

I'm not sure he really experienced it. Besides what sort of Irishman wears big ORANGE ties on St. Pat's day?

[Breeze54]

32. The Protestant Irish against Catholic Irish!

The Penal Laws against Catholics were zealously backed by the Orange Order.
Under these codes, the law did not even recognize the "existence" of an Irish Roman Catholic.

RELIGIOUS NATURE

The Orange Order is fundamentally a CHRISTIAN organisation, as the BASIS of the Institution states
- "The Institution is composed of Protestants, united and resolved to the utmost of their power
to support and defend the ..... the Protestant Religion."

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. Good for them.

[Zookeeper]

34. And "Screw American citizens?"

Nice.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

35. No. Make them American Citizens.

Then they can fight for better wages.

[SayWhatYo]

42. No...

Make them come here through the proper channels, then they can fight for better wages. Open, fix, improve the channels if needed, but do not allow for them to be bypassed by anyone who does not wish to follow the rules... This goes foe anyone, any race and from any country of origin. It doesn't matter if they're from Mexico, Asia, Canada, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa or Mars... They must follow whatever rules and laws are in place.

I take it you're in favour of open borders, right? Should all countries do the same? I don't know of any country that allows anyone to enter it without meeting some sort of criteria and by going through some sort of process.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

45. I am in favor of open borders as a basic human right.

And, I do believe that all countries should do the same. The United States accepted immigrants without meeting some sort of "criteria" for a good portion of it's history.

My grandmother brought 4 of her six kids across the Canadian border, after migrating to Canada from England after she had migrated to England from Ireland, to "steal" cleaning jobs from "real citizens" whose antecedents had done the same.

My mother became a "real citizen" by marrying a "real citizen" which magically endowed her with citizenship.

The "illegals" now crossing the border without begging permission are doing what mankind has been doing since Adam & Eve got evicted from Eden.

[Le Taz Hot]

58. Why don't they do that in their OWN

country???????

[Marrah_G]

9. I remember when construction work was a good-paying job

Now it's right up there with working at mcdonalds. Landscaping also...

People confuse "jobs Americans won't do" with "jobs Americans won't do for 7.00 per hour and no insurance"

[Sapere aude]

14. jobs Americans won't do for 7.00 per hour ?

What do you do if you don't take a $7 per hr job? You get more skills to make more? You don't work? You look for higher paying jobs?


If you don't want the job then why can't someone else have it? I guess the answer is you want the job but you want it to pay a better wage. If we enforce the immigration laws on employers would they pay you more than the rounded up immigrants?

Just asking not taking sides.

[conscious evolution]

23. would they pay you more than the rounded up immigrants?

Damn right they would.
I used to make over $20.00 an hour as an electrician before the illegals got their foot in the door.In 2001,I,working for a non-union company,was making more than union scale.Since illegals started worming their way into the electrical construction field there has been a steady decline in wages for legal workers.Today,there is no way in hell anyone will hire me at that rate.
Illegals are also getting all of the overtime while us legals could only work 40 hours per week.Also,per diems and hotel expenses for road work has all but disappeared since the influx of illegals.
I also know of companies that hire a whole gang of illegals where only one or two actually know what they are doing.The rest are directed on a monkey see monkey do basis.They have no real knowledge of what they are doing nor any knowledge of the National Electrical Code,much less OSHA and other workplace rules and regulations.As a result the few legals left spend their time fixing the fuck-ups.One contractor told me it is cheaper and more profitable to do this.Personally I know that it is the other way around.It is always cheaper to do it right the first time than to do something twice.Quite often it can take twice as long to just figure out what the mistake is.Then add in time to actually repair it?There is no way in hell this is profitable.(Unless you are a repuke contractor getting sweetheart cost-plus contracts from gov work)
Also,this crap about they need the lower wage rates to be profitable is bullshit too.Companies bid the same labor rates whether they staff with illegals or legals.The only benefit of hiring illegals is the contractor gets to pocket more in profits.

Don't get me wrong and assume that I am a xenophobic freeptard who hates Hispanics.As people I have nothing against them.For the most part,the illegals I have worked besides are good people who are just trying to make a better life for themselves.Its the assholes who bring them here or hire them that I have problems with.Such people are destroying the middle class in this country for their own personal gain.That,IMO,is wrong and contrary to the common good for the citizens of this country.

[Phx_Dem]

15. Even contruction clean up pays higher than $7

Constuction jobs are still good jobs, especially in certain areas.

[hogwyld]

18. Another thing you need to consider

Is that construction is very physical and dangerous labor. Something Americans are less and less inclined to do.

[acmavm]

19. What the hell are you talking about? Americans have always

done construction. Americans would still be doing construction if it weren't for the influx of illegals here in this country screwing the entire job market up. I have people come in here and ask for an app all the time and they say they were working construction BUT GOT LAID OFF. They would still be working construction except for the lay off.

There are some people here who seem to get off bad mouthing their fellow Americans.

[Sapere aude]

22. The whole new housing market went to hell that's a big reason for the layoff.

My wife worked for Owens Corning. The sold asphalt for shingles. The had to close the office because there was no need for the shingles do to the down turn in construction.

[acmavm]

27. New housing is the ONLY construction going on in this

country.

I'm glad you told me that.

[conscious evolution]

33. True.But that is why OSHA exists

I am in one of the most dangerous construction fields.Electrical construction.One fuck-up can lead to serious bodily harm or death.Thanks to OSHA much of the risk is removed.Unfortunately to many contractors would rather save a buck by not enforcing safety rules.Since legal workers know and understand safety procedures the contractors will use illegals because they don't know their rights when it comes to safety.
As for it being physical work,so is working out at the gym.And people actually pay for gym memberships.The argument that people do not want to do physical labor is bullshit.If you don't believe me then go down to the local gym and take a good look at what people are doing there.

[Fierce]

57. Union construction is doing just fine, thank you very much.

Hard to argue with $40/hour plus benefits and a pension.

[Horse with no Name]

10. And amazingly

The US Latino population is also gaining.
Wouldn't that make more sense as to why they account for such a large portion of the jobs?

[David__77]

16. 2 in 3 "new jobs" is different than 2 in 3 jobs.

I find the title misleading.

[blondeatlast]

24. Good catch; I missed it on the first read. nt

[Phx_Dem]

25. I would edit it if I could.

nt.

[TahitiNut]

44. All that means is "hired" ... "new jobs" is a euphemism. Jargon.

With the average length of employment being something around 2 years or less in the construction industry (about 4-5 years overall), that comes quite close to being all jobs. The only reason the statistics are gathered this way is because it's WHERE/WHEN the numbers are gathered: in the hiring of 'new' employees. (Does anyone think a 'new employee' is someone going to work for the first time?)

[verse18]

26. George Lopez has a comedy special called "America's Mexican"

"Who do you think is rebuilding New Orleans?" (audience laughs)

"FEMA. Find Every Mexican Available."

[Deja Q]

29. Don't forget our history - America was founded by immigrants...

Immigrants who came and took over the indigenous people...

Funny, how things don't change...

[Le Taz Hot]

59. Immigrants are not the issue.

Funny how illegal immigration ALWAYS morphs into all immigrants by proponents. The issue is ILLEGAL immigration vs. SUPPORTING the rights of American (regardless of race, creed, color, etc.) workers to earn a livable wage.

By the way, anyone ever do any research about what Mexico does with it's southern border? Interesting reading.

[earth mom]

31. Destruction of the working class...and some around here think it's okay.

:wtf:

:grr: :grr: :grr:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

36. Last I heard, construction workers are "working class".

At least it was when I worked in construction.

[earth mom]

40. Let me spell it out for you: Jobs that used to pay $20 + an hour are now paying half that.

That's destruction of the working class for legal citizens. :eyes:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

41. So, make them citizens and organize.

Then go after the bosses not the victims.

[SayWhatYo]

43. They are not victims if they enter without going through the proper channels.

Now, if they have kids, then the kids are victim of their parents.

For example, if I come across an abandoned gold and I decide to go mine some gold because I'm sick of being poor. If I break into the abandoned mine it's my own fault if I get injured while inside. Sure, I'd be a victim, a victim of my own stupidity. But hey, I'll sue someone anyways, and I'm sure you'll support me, right? After all, I was looking to improve my life by finding some gold.

I'm not placing the sole blame on those who illegally enter the US. In fact, I place nearly all the blame on the companies that hire them... However, I do not see them as victims.

[Toucano]

46. Yes they are.

All workers are victims of the greedy bourgeois.

Distinctions like black and white, hispanic and anglo, legal and illegal are just diversions to keep you fighting among yourselves while the man helps himself to a lionshare of everything.

If you were supporting a family on $15 per day and you heard about a place where people would pay you $10 PER HOUR, you'd be obligated to do the best you could to make a better life for your family, regardless of the obstacles.

It's the BUSINESSES that are the criminals and drive the whole "illegal" immigration to exploit ANOTHER underclass.

Put some CEOs who lure foreign workers here to save money in JAIL, and the equation would soon change.

[The Straight Story]

47. WTF? We are LURING there here??

Maybe they need to take issue their own govt and companies there.

Why should we put company leaders in jail if they are do what you are saying is good anyway? IE giving them a better wage than they got at home ; you don't want to punish the illegal - you want to make them citizens, ie - reward them, and at the same time you want to put into the jail the people giving them the money and improving their way of life.

[lumberjack_jeff]

54. Sure. Much like the irresistable allure of a pile of cash to a bank robber. n/t

[Toucano]

61. For the love of god.

Maybe you haven't seen the pop-ups generated on AOL, MSN, or Yahoo if you log in from a foreign IP address. They're solicitations to WORK in the U.S.


The United States has spent the last 184 years exploiting the resources and destroying the economies of every country to the south.

"Their own govt and companies there..." is/has been non-existent. The companies are U.S. companies, the governments (historically) brutal dictators and puppet regimes installed by the United States at gun point.

No less than 80 military interventions in Latin America are publicly acknowledged and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM was for the benefit of companies like United Fruit, Alcoa, and Accessory Transit Company. Maybe you can sympathize with the difficulty people might have trying to control their own destiny in the face of a U.S. marine batallion with orders to stop them?

Democratically elected leaders have ROUTINELY been murdered or forced to resign if they opposed the enslavement and exploitation of their people. Coca-Cola pays for the bullets that kill union organizers.

Then you have the World Bank and the IMF meddling with "free enterprise" and telling a country to grow less rice and more coffee and we'll give you "infrastructure" loans (so you can build strip malls and have a Starbucks! You want a Starbucks don't you? Like in the MOOVIES!). Then they tell Africa to do the same and the price of coffee drops and they're left with no rice and no cash from the coffee crop.

So Uncle Sam comes along with foreign "aid" that arrives with a few strings attached. Strings like eliminate your minimum wage, don't tax our "investors", and let us put a military base in this strategic location. It saves us money if we can keep our marines close by.



YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SUFFERING that drives the immigrants across your border. You bought the bullets, you gassed up the tanks.



So, instead of acknowledging the TRUE CAUSE and COMMON INTERESTS with the working people to the south, you prefer to blame the victim and IGNORE the corporate hegemony that makes your existence so comfortable.

The remedy:

1. BUTT THE FUCK OUT. Let these people determine their own destiny. Their opportunities in their home countries will improve.
2. Help to unionize ALL WORKERS regardless of national boundary. The corporations know no boundaries, but a carpenters' union does?
3. ENFORCE your own laws against HIRING undocumented workers with something more than a slap on the wrist or 30 days in a country club prison. The hotels in Las Vegas will just have to pay wages that allow a person to live the "American Dream".

It's interesting that you suggest people fix "their own" government when you can't even control yours in what is supposedly the greatest country in the world. Exactly how long has the United States been led by an unelected president? Where were you when the CIA was selling crack to school kids and sending the profits to fight a democratically elected government in Nicaragua?

[originalpckelly]

50. You might want to use a smaller number of cliches next time. "The man"?

[Toucano]

56. Would that make you see the truth of the situation more clearly?

Clichés are employed for a purpose of framing an issue in familiar terms.

[LeftyMom]

48. Are they supposed to stay in thier home countries and deal with even worse economics?

When the choices are stay and starve or leave and survive, our genes leave us no choice but to go where we have the best chance of raising children to adulthood. For that matter, the very idea of emigrating from one's familial territory as one enters adulthood is not only typical of the human experience (for the simple reason that if everybody sticks around the gene pool gets rather stagnant) but something we share with most of our primate ancestors and relatives as well.

Employers are responsible for meeting safety regulations and training their employees to work safely focusing on hazards inherent in the job. No matter what the job pays, if it's legal or under the table, that's just a part of doing business, and to blame employees- especially those who likely don't know any better or have safer alternative employment readily available to them- when greedy employers abdicate that responsibility is wrong both from a policy standpoint and an ethical one.

[originalpckelly]

51. The real problem here is that their home countries suck.

People shouldn't have to move to a foreign country for economics alone. That's exactly what a large number of these immigrants are doing. America is no longer the only beacon of hope for the world, as it was when older immigration waves occurred. We ought to work on helping these people in their home countries, that way they don't have to struggle here to learn the language and languish in low paying crappy jobs.

When it comes to those crappy jobs, we need to work on methods of eliminating them completely through automation.

[LeftyMom]

52. Well, I can't see automating home construction

Even assembly-lined houses, whether of the trailer/manufactured home sort or of the identical suburban starter castle variety still require human hands and lots of them, though use of power tools and other mechanical helps has certainly decreased the amount of labor involved. Anyhow, the goal needs to be not the elimination of badly needed jobs, but the application of labor laws to make what was once a well-paying industry a viable option again. After all, many people prefer physical work.

[originalpckelly]

53. I guess to think that way, you have to assume people don't enjoy building houses.

You forget there are those of us stuck at the age of five who love to build things.

Construction is not a bad job in comparison to scraping some piss ridden toilet or sitting there making sure the chocolates are all the same size.

And yes, the goal should be the elimination of those jobs, so that seniors can purchase stock in the automatic manufacturing companies, to support themselves. Since there would be very few employees to pay, the investors would earn a large amount of money.

We need to change the reality of the economy.

[Toucano]

62. Their home countries don't suck. They've been systematically crippled.

How about you find the dignity in ALL LABOR. There would be no "crappy job" if you respected all people who do all necessary jobs and recognized their dignity.

[LeftyMom]

49. Anybody got a link on this that isn't UPI?

There isn't enough information in that link to draw any conclusions except that UPI probably isn't hiring the top j-school grads. Moonie news. :eyes:

[treestar]

55. "Hispanics" can be US citizens or legal immigrants

And what is wrong with people having jobs because they are "hispanic?"

I would be willing to bet that "white men" are disproportionately in jobs that pay higher than construction - how about "U.S. Senator" or "CEO"

[alarimer]

60. when they remodeled my apartment complex, they used illegals

because they worked every single day for about 12 hours. No days off as far as I could tell. They began installing siding on my apartment at 8 AM ON A SUNDAY MORNING! Of course I was livid and told off the foreman, who was an Anglo. Those poor guys lived 12 to a room in the studio apartment. I am sure these working conditions violated many OSHA rules but the owners didn't give a shit. They wanted the work done as quickly and as cheaply as possible. I should have called the authorities.

And it looks like shit too. Poor quality workmanship and materials. Then they raised the rent $125 (to something like $550 from $425). Fuckers. So I moved.

But the reason people hire illegals (and I assume the figures are due to illegals- but I could be wrong on that) is because they will work under inhumane conditions and not complain, even though they should. It disgusts me that rich asshole business owners will do this. They belong in fucking jail for treating people that way and for breaking the law. Don't blame the workers; blame the business owners or managers that allow this.