Hispanic Entrepreneurship in US Increases: Immigrants More Likely to Start A Business than Non-Hispanics
Hispanic entrepreneurs in the United States (U.S.) have grown "exponentially" during the past two decades according to a new report.
The Partnership for a New American Economy and the Latino Donor Collaborative revealed Hispanic entrepreneurs have helped boost the economy even during the recent recession. Hispanic immigrants are also more likely to be entrepreneurs than the average U.S. citizen.
According to data between 1990 and 2012, the number of Hispanic entrepreneurs in the U.S. more than quadrupled from 577,000 to 2 million. The rise of Hispanic entrepreneurs surpassed the population growth among working-age Hispanics. In comparison to non-Hispanics, the self-employed non-Hispanics grew by 14 percent, which was one eighteenth as fast as the rate of the Hispanic entrepreneurial.
Between the same 1990 and 2012 timeframe, the number of Hispanic immigrant entrepreneurs more than quadrupled from 321,000 to 1.4 million. The report, titled How Hispanic Entrepreneurs Are Beating Expectations and Bolstering the U.S. Economy, did note the number of self-employed Mexican immigrants grew to 765,000.
"For years, it has been clear that immigrant entrepreneurs have helped grow our nation's economy while creating jobs and keeping us competitive with countries across the world, said Partnership for a New American Economy Chairman John Feinblatt.
The report, according to Feinblatt, revealed the substantial contributions Hispanic immigrants provided.
"Hispanic entrepreneurs are now playing an outsized role in business creation and powering our economy when we need them the most," he continued, adding the need to pass immigration reform can create more entrepreneurship and a stronger economy.
The Partnership for a New American Economy and the Latino Donor Collaborative report, prepared by Dr. Marie T. Mora and Dr. Alberto Davila of the University of Texas-Pan American, elaborated Hispanic entrepreneurs helped the U.S. economy during the recession at a time when entrepreneurship among non-Hispanics declined. The decade that included the recent recession resulted in a 71.5 percent growth of Hispanic entrepreneurs. The rise of individual Hispanic entrepreneurs made a difference in the overall U.S. unemployment rate. The report noted if the 581,000 Hispanic immigrant entrepreneurs, during 2000 to 2010, were unemployed in 2010, then the unemployment rate would have been 0.4 percentage points higher.
"Indeed, American Hispanics have made major contributions to this nation's wealth and well-being from the beginning of the Republic -- and not just in the military but also in sports, entertainment, politics, and business. Now, with this report, we confirm that America's Hispanic entrepreneurs are driving business formation and new job creation throughout America's new economy. The next step is to make sure each of these entrepreneurs can be a citizen of the U.S. Full speed ahead, indeed," said the Latino Donor Collaborative Chairman Sol Trujillo, referencing the words by American Hispanic David Farragut during the U.S. Civil War's Battle of Mobile Bay.
The report also noted more than 70,000 of the U.S.'s CEOs in the US are Latino.
The Partnership for a New American Economy consists of over 500 bipartisan mayors and business leaders in support of immigration reforms and job creation. The Latino Donor Collaborative, founded by Trujillo and Henry Cisneros, is a non-profit organization aimed to reshape and promote the contributions of Latinos in various brands such as cultural, economic, and nationals security.
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