LATINOS/HISPANICS IN THE TRADES

Chart A

Distribution of race and ethnicity within construction occupational group, 2020. Sourced from U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics

I am sure you are as curious as I am to know what the updated numbers will reflect when they are published. As you can see here where the blue line represents the Hispanic/Latino population that we are the majority in the general construction and extraction category.

Chart B

This chart shows that the young Hispanic/Latino population leads as the largest percentage of construction workers and workers across all industries in the United States.

What can we do to better equip Latino workers to take on manager or administration positions in these industry? Do enough opportunities exist for us to see a significant change? or do we have to make the opportunities our selves?

Education is going to be the best place to start in better guiding the youth entering the labor force. Instilling a high value for education will encourage them to attain higher degrees of knowledge and better position them for attaining leadership roles in the future. Exemplify by being an active learner, role model worthy individuals that may be retiring or a senior employee advocating for the importance of learning speaks volumes and reinforces that learning can be done at any stage of your journey. Through challenging ourselves we can send a more effective message that the other parts of the industry that involves leadership are also positions we are willing and prepared to take on as they become available in the job market.

As a career construction worker I have come to value the importance of continued education, as a residential home builder I am fortunate to be able to learn new things every day due to the ever changing atmosphere of my profession. In the construction industry new tools and materials are being invented and developed daily to make building systems more practical and less demanding in time or effort. If I am not proactive about staying up to date with what is changing in the industry I could fall behind and miss out on valuable opportunities to elevate my business.

Workshops, classes and seminars are great experiences when going to trade shows or conferences, presenters often find a way to give valuable information in a short window of time and do this in an engaging way. Trade shows or conferences may not be for you and that’s okay, there are often many ways to network in smaller circles but I recommend you step out of your comfort zone, especially if change is what you are looking for. Check in with your local supply shops and ask if they ever have events at their locations for contractors and vendors. Simply taking this route as a tradesman can change how you do business down the line, especially if you choose to develop a line of communication around your supply chain.

As a Carpenter by trade and business owner, I have been able to create opportunities for myself and others but not without taking on a number of risks. Being less afraid to take risks is going to be vital to the overall growth of the latino community in all industries, filling higher positions in the workplace is important for making a system with equitable representation.

Chart C

This graphic here demonstrates the change in percent distribution of construction employment by race and ethnicity between the year 2003 and 2020.

Over a 17 year period you can see the most drastic change took place between the Non-Hispanic White and Hispanic employee percentages. The 10% of the Non-Hispanic White population that diminished in the construction work force was replaced by the Hispanic/Latino employees over the 17 year period. Other demographics appear to have remained static even after nearly 20 years. Even in 2024 this growth trend appears to remain similar to what is reflected in this chart.

With the growth of the latino population it would be expected to possibly see advancement in other sectors of the construction industry such as computer engineering and science where we disproportionately have the lowest number. That doesn’t speak to a lack of interest, the interest is there, the issue is resources and accessibility. Maybe you have heard this once before “Everybody is a Genius. But If You Judge a Fish by Its Ability to Climb a Tree, It Will Live Its Whole Life Believing that It is Stupid” ~Albert Einstein

Just because some of us on the planet haven’t had the luxury of English education or education in the United States we can’t forget that those jobs are for us too, those careers, those business ownership opportunities all of it, the American dream isn’t something that any human being is entitled to whether born on its soil or not. The young Latino community may sometimes be identified as dreamers, but we have to be the ones to wake them up, they are more than just dreamers they are the dream.