Latinos land 2 in 3 U.S. construction jobs

WASHINGTON, March 7 (UPI) -- Latinos make up 13.6 percent of the U.S. employment population, but accounted for 36.7 percent of the 2006 U.S. employment growth, a study showed Wednesday.

Most of the jobs Hispanic workers landed were in the construction industry, the Pew Hispanic Center said.

In fact, two out of every three new U.S. constriction jobs went to Hispanic workers, the center said.

Hispanic employment increased by almost 1 million from 2005 to 2006, with foreign-born Latinos who arrived since 2000 responsible for about 24 percent of the total U.S. employment increase.

Undocumented immigrants accounted for about two-thirds of the increase in recently arrived Hispanic workers, the center estimated.

The center derived its estimates from Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census Bureau data, it said.