Hispanic labor share continues to grow, now 25% of construction

The number of Hispanic workers in increased in 2006 over 2005, just as it had in prior years. And the growth is particularly noticeable in construction. This is according to a Pew Hispanic Center report issued in March of this year but just come to my attention.
In 2006, there were about 145 million in the workforce. Of these 20 million were Hispanics, up from 18 million in 2004. Much of the growth came from relatively new arrivals (last 2 years) in the United States. In total, they comprised in 2006 13.6% of the industry’s workforce.
The “Latino” labor force added 980,000 workers between 2005 and 2006. “That accounted for 38% of all workers added to the labor force.”
They accounted for two thirds of the 599,000 person growth in construction employment in 2006. About 11.7 million people work in construction. In 2004, Hispanics made up 21% of this total. In 2006, they made up 25%. Of that, 19.1% were foreign born and 7.2% were recent arrivals in the U.S. (last two years). The recent arrival segment has been growing very rapidly.