Hispanic job creators are leading us out of the COVID economy

The first Friday of every month is an exciting time for the media. That’s the day when the U.S. Department of Labor issues their monthly employment report. All the TV networks run stories and analysis of these numbers, while a breakdown appears on every major news outlet. However, during all the discussion over what the jobs numbers mean, there’s one thing that somehow always gets lost. Behind these numbers are real people.

Tens of millions of these people are Hispanic, and they are increasingly the engine of the American workforce. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that there were 29 million Hispanics at work in this country in 2020, and projects that number to increase to nearly 36 million by 2030. That tracks with growth in the Hispanic community in the United States, which is now about 20 percent of the total population, and more than 60 million people. 

As the country finds its way out of the COVID-19 pandemic, McKinsey & Company recently noted: “Hispanic population growth means the country’s long-term recovery is inextricable from the recovery of Hispanic families, communities, and businesses. Indeed, the community’s unique assets—such as its relative youth and above-average rates of entrepreneurship—can contribute to more equitable post-pandemic recovery and growth.”

It’s true that the “above-average rates of entrepreneurship” in the Hispanic community are already helping our economy bounce back. Hispanics are not just members of the workforce, they’re business builders and job creators, who are adding more positions and employing more people. Recent research from the Stanford Graduate School of Business found that the number of Hispanic-owned “employer firms” — companies that have at least one paid employee besides the owner — rose by 35 percent over the last ten years. White-owned employer firms, by comparison, grew by only 4.5 percent.

There are an estimated 450,000 Hispanic employers in this country, and they have nearly 3 million people on their payroll. According to the Stanford researchers, that translates to a 55 percent increase in the number of employees at Hispanic-owned businesses since 2007 — compared to just 8 percent among white-owned firms in the same period.

It hasn’t all been smooth sailing, of course. The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted our small and medium sized businesses along with the rest of the American economy. McKinsey estimates that “about 50 percent of revenue of Hispanic-owned businesses is in the hardest-hit sectors, including leisure and hospitality, retail trade, and construction.” But there’s one thing the Hispanic community has proven time and again — in business and in life — we’re resilient.

One example of this resilience is Peinado Construction in Frisco, Texas. Teddy Peinado started his construction company 13 years ago, since then they’ve designed and constructed more than 50 million square feet of commercial buildings. The construction industry got hit hard during the pandemic, but Peinado didn’t buckle. With the shift to working from home and the growth in e-commerce, the demand for industrial warehousing in 2021 increased 54 percent above 2020, a demand Peinado was prepared to fulfill. They did even more business in 2021 than they did in 2020, raising their project volume from $468 million to $919 million, that’s a 96 percent year over year growth. And in January of 2021, their main office had 64 employees. Today, they have 84. Peinado Construction created 20 new jobs during a time when businesses struggled to remain afloat.

Twenty jobs may not sound like a huge number, but small- and medium-sized employers make a big difference in their communities. Every job counts. And increasingly it’s Hispanic entrepreneurs like Teddy Peinado who are creating those jobs. So if anyone wants to know how America is going to get itself out of the COVID economy, watch Teddy Peinado and the rest of the Hispanic job creators. We’re hustling our way out of the pandemic, and everyone else is welcome to follow our lead.

Javier Palomarez is the President and CEO of the United States Hispanic Business Council (USHBC), a 501(c)6 non-profit organization focusing on improving access to contracting in the public and private sector and fair representation of Hispanics in business, media, and politics.