Thursday, April 17, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
ECONOMIC IMPACT: Study reveals Hispanics' contributions
Immigrants account for more than a fourth of the total employment in Clark County
By JULIET V. CASEY
REVIEW-JOURNAL
An economic study released Wednesday shows Hispanic immigrants make a significant contribution to the Clark County economy.
They fill and create jobs, earn wages, and contribute to local government coffers in the form of retail and property taxes, it concludes.
"They contribute more than they take out," said Raymond Sandoval, director of the Reynaldo L. Martinez Institute, which called for the study along with the Mexican Consulate in Las Vegas and Univision, a Spanish-language TV station.
"Some pundits and newspapers talk about immigrants being a deficit to the economy, but now we have the facts that show they are a prime contributor to the overall growth and health not just of the economy but of the government as well," he said.
The study was conducted by the Center for Business and Economic Research of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
According to the study, Hispanic immigrants last year earned a total of $2.6 billion in wages in 131,000 jobs. The study found most Hispanic immigrants take jobs in service and construction industries, but many also have jobs in retail and wholesale trade. According to the study, every job filled by a Hispanic immigrant helps create 0.6 of an additional job in the Clark County economy.
Hispanic immigrants account for more than a fourth of the total employment in Clark County, the study found.
The study also shows Hispanic immigrants generate $15.6 billion to the local economy in direct and indirect productivity, and contribute about $829 million to state and local government coffers.
About 15 percent of Hispanic immigrant earnings, however, go into savings or remittances to their native countries, the study found.
Economist Mary Riddel, associate director of the Center for Business and Economic Research, said the study was based on numbers from the 2000 Census and a sampling of 600 people who agreed to complete a 21-question survey about their citizenship, employment, wages and spending habits, English fluency, age, education level, and home and automobile ownership. The survey has a margin of error of 5 percentage points.
Sandoval said the Reynaldo L. Martinez Institute plans to release a follow-up analysis with suggested policy changes based on the results of this study. He said the study also could be used for marketing in gauging the buying power of Hispanics.
The report, presented at UNLV, focused on the impact of Hispanic immigrant contributions on the local economy. The study did not analyze the cost of services delivered to this population.
However, according to the Clark County School District, about $11.3 million was spent in the 2002-03 school year on classes for English language learners, students whose English skills were not good enough for them to remain in regular classes.
Hispanics are the fastest growing minority population in the school district, representing 32 percent of the district's total enrollment of 255,000 students. That's up from 7.2 percent in 1985.
"The Hispanic contributions, however, are much more than they ever receive as a group from government entities," Sandoval said.
The 2000 Census estimated 22 percent of Clark County residents consider themselves Hispanic. Almost 80 percent of those said they are immigrants.
Berenice Rendon-Talavera, the Mexican Consul in Las Vegas, said the economic study is crucial to her office, which opened just last year to serve the rapidly growing Mexican and Mexican-American population.
"We've always heard about what a burden these immigrants are on the local economy, but now we see how they contribute as well," she said.
Rendon-Talavera said the study will be shared with higher-ranking officials in the Mexican government, but stopped short of saying whether the study might have broader political implications.
The consulate in Las Vegas serves all of Nevada, providing information to the public about requirements for traveling to Mexico, helping Mexican nationals obtain passports and consular identification cards, and educating business people about travel and trade between the United States and Mexico. The consul also can help recover back wages for undocumented workers who get deported.
"This study shows us the positive impacts as well as the needs," she said.
