Workforce Language Services

A November 2008 article from the Providence Journal describes the trickle-down effects of a weak national economy on the state’s Hispanic population.  The article quotes a representative from the RI Small Business Development Center as well as the president and CEO of Progreso Latino, an agency that supposedly provides all necessary social services to the Latino population of two cities.  Despite my own beef with the latter agency, Martinez makes a good point about the conditions RI Latinos face:

Martinez, of Progreso Latino, said that as of 2002 there were 3,415 Hispanic-owned small businesses in Rhode Island that added $213.7 million to the state’s economy. Martinez said he can’t cite statistics yet, but he senses that the economic slump is already having a particularly adverse effect on the state’s Hispanic community, especially among those who lack education and a command of English.

The article also cites some stats about the reality of life in RI:

Figures from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, cited by the Poverty Institute at Rhode Island College, put the Hispanic population of Rhode Island at 115,668, or 11 percent of the population. The poverty rate for Hispanics in Rhode Island was 30.5 percent in 2007, compared with 12 percent for all Rhode Islanders. Median income for Hispanic households was $33,817, compared with $53,568 for all Rhode Island households.

To read the entire article, click here.  Also, make note of the fact that when this article went to press, RI’s unemployment rate was 8.8 percent for all workers but has since passed 10 percent.