Nevada’s jobless rate for Hispanics highest in nation
RENO — A Washington think tank says Nevada had the highest unemployment rate among Hispanics in the U.S. in the second quarter of 2009.
The Economic Policy Institute, a labor-leaning economic think tank, says in a report that the state’s unemployment rate among Hispanics was 16.4 percent. California came in second at 15.7 percent.
The report says the rate is due in part to a large number of job losses in the construction industry.
The overall Nevada unemployment rate in the quarter was 11.3 percent.
Mike Dillon, executive director of the Builders Association of Northern Nevada, says local home builders’ work forces are at about 80 percent of what they were last year.
Projections show the unemployment rate among Hispanics in Nevada rising to 17.8 percent a year from now.