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You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Stenoveek on Bloomberg Radio. Let's talk a little bit about the US economy and specifically the role of Latinos in the US economy. According to this year's US Latino GDP report, they found that the GDP from latinos hit a record high in twenty twenty three, up to four point one trillion dollars. That's up from three point seven
trillion dollars in twenty twenty two. Needless to say, Latinos are a huge part of the US economy, and I think a lot of people have questions right now about what immigration policies and what deportation policies mean for that number. We've got with us right now. Anna Valdez, she's President CEO of the nonprofit the Latino Donor Collaborative. She joins us this afternoon from Los Angeles on a good to have you with us this afternoon.
How would you say the InCom.
Just describe the how you look at the definition here of latinos and of how you're measuring the data and their economic impact here.
Absolutely, first, let me tell you that this report that I'm going to talk about was done by Arizona State University. We work with the Economics Center there, and so what we found is that after measuring the Latino GDP in the United States, and remember Tom and Emily that all these numbers are based on official numbers, and we do that so that the credibility is there, so that there
is no way out of it. And so after measuring it for eight years this year, which are the numbers from twenty twenty three, as you know, those numbers don't come until two years later, the Latino GDP of the unit in the United States. Remember this is US Latinos. They produced four trillion dollars in GDP. So that you guys, and of course our audience understand if Latinos in the US would be an economy by themselves, they would be
the fifth largest economy in the world. And these numbers are always surprising when it's the first time you've heard them, right, because of course there is this, you know, some unfortunate perception that Latinos come to this country and they don't contribute and they are actually working with the system. The truth is that a large part of the GDP of the United States is produced by this cohort.
What sectors of the economy are Latinos contributing the most to, so.
You know, traditionally Emily, of course we see that, you know, manufacturing, and you know how housing and all this you know fields, right the agricultural part, and we're very important and they're still very important. What is really interesting of the latest reports in the last three years is that the sectors like AI, technology, medicine, and all these different fields where you usually not relate, right you know, Latinos to the
growth are happening. And in the report you'll see that in the case for example of AI, Latinos over index Latino businesses over index in terms of use of AI compared to any others ANA.
I'm wondering about what this impact could be on the economy because if we think about mass deportation, the images that we're seeing play out right now, what we're seeing happen in cities and around the US right now, how does this affect workforce growth in the US. Because Latinos have been the main force behind workforce growth in recent years, and even though a large portion the majority of Latinos in the us are US born. Now, I think this could still have an effect.
This has tremendous effects, and not only because you know of the actual happenings, but also because of the perception right people, as you've seen, you know, people that have been here legally, people that are citizens are sometimes just generalized within this almost cohort profiling right of you know, deportations very very focused on the Latino community. And you asked me, how does this affect Well, just think about it.
According to the Department of Labor and the Census, seventy eight percent of all the new workforce in the next ten years will come from the Latino community. So if you are thinking that, as you know, there is a lack of workforce in some of those industries already right in actually in all industries already, right before the pandemic, there were eleven million jobs not filled because of lack of workforce. After the pandemic there were Today there are
six million jobs not fit. So imagine without this workforce, or at least reduced this workforce. You know, and I don't know if you've seen it, but I'm sure you have. You know, we see, we hear the CEO of Target and the see of Constellation Brands and the CEO of Jack in the Box saying what's happening. We need workers,
we also need consumers. And last number, because you brought it up, eighty percent of Latinos eighty one percent of Latinos are American citizens, nine percent are here with documents which means green card and work permits and student permits. And only nine percent of Latinos are undocumented. But still the way things are going, you know, this deportation movement is not limited to undocumented people.
Well, let's talk about the job market before we let you go. Are there more jobs to be filled for the Latino community specifically, or is there more demand for jobs or more supply of workers than there actually are jobs to be had.
Again, we go back to the numbers of Department of Labor, right, And of course we've heard the industry, the dairy industry and of course the agricultural farmers right movements, the meat packing. But also we here we're as you know, we're bringing engineers from other places, right when you know you have the Latino cocord over indexing in growth in the engineering
you know faculties in the United States. So Emily I think we're talking about a lack of workforce in general, but also a lot of opportunity from a community that is extremely young. The average age for Latinos in the United States is twelve years old. The average age of not Latinos is fifty eight years old. Oh wow, So imagine how that's going to look in six years the average age is twelve and another number that will be shocking is thirty percent of all births according to the Census our Latino.
It's a fascinating demographic story. It's one we're going to continue to follow. Anna, thanks for taking your time in for your patients this afternoon as we covered so much breaking news. Ana Valdez, President and CEO of the nonprofit The Latino Donor Collaborative