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A new University of North Carolina study shows that white males receive more tips about job opportunities than minorities and women, particularly in upper management positions.

“Our research shows that 95 times out of 100, white men receive more job leads than white women or Hispanic men or women,” says Dr. Steve McDonald, an assistant professor of sociology at NC State who was the lead author of the study.

The findings of the study show that the disparity between white men, minorities and women is greatest among workers in high-level management. McDonald points out that “these gender and race differences in access to job opportunities help to explain why white men continue to fill a disproportionately large number of jobs in upper management.”

They believe that the cause of this underlying discrimination (whether conscious or unconscious) is so-called “social capital.” In the study’s context, social capital is “the extent and quality of connections to people in various fields of employment.”

Researchers tabulated how many job leads a person receives during routine conversations, without having asked for the information. The study surveyed 3,000 representative U.S. residents.

Click here to read more about the study “Networks of Opportunity: Gender, Race and Job Leads.”

For past generations of Hispanics in the United States, becoming part of a corporate entity was sometimes viewed as “selling out.” But for second and third generations, that attitude is changing.

Many Hispanics came to the United States to take advantage of college education, and young Hispanic professionals these days are beginning to reap the benefits. Not only are they climbing the corporate ladder at higher rates than in the past, many are becoming business owners in sectors where Hispanics were previously underrepresented—technology, engineering, finance and law.

Roberto Cornelio, 51, director of the chamber’s Hispanic Entrepreneurship Center, says it’s not just mom-and-pop businesses, either.

“Traditionally, the Hispanic business community focused on providing goods and services to the Hispanic community,” Mr. Cornelio says. “That’s changing. It’s still an important part of our community, but people have been exposed to many other opportunities. We’re seeing people go into technology, and a number of Hispanics have opened professional services business.”

A Chicago Business article quantifies the shift:

• Between 2003-2008, Hispanics in management, business and financial operations rose from 5.9% to 7.5%
• In the same period, Hispanics in chief executive positions rose from 3.3% to 4.8%
• The Illinois Chamber of Commerce has grown 1,000% in the last several years
• 6,787 Hispanics earned MBAs in 2007, making up 4.6% of the degree-holders

And still, there’s a long way to go:

• Hispanics comprise about 15% of the state of Illinois’s population, but only 4% of Illinois businesses are Hispanic-owned (the number is growing, however)
• Hispanics hold 234 seats on Fortune 1,000 corporate boards, only 2.3% of all seats
• There are just six Hispanic CEOs represented in the Fortune 500
• 71% of Fortune 500 companies have no Hispanics on their boards

Many Hispanic business leaders quoted in the article believe that Hispanics will continue to push for more recognition in the business world. Says Leopoldo Lastre, president of the Hispanic Lawyers Assn. of Illinois, “We will see more gains as long as there are opportunities. We’re not looking for the bar to be lowered.”

Click here to read the full article.

A UCLA study shows that Latino-owned businesses are moving in an upward trajectory: there’s been a 3.43% increase in growth between 1997 and 2002, with $35 billion in sales generated in 2002.

The study points to some strengths and weaknesses of Latino businesses, which occupy the largest percent of minority-owned businesses and therefore make a greater impact on the regional economy.

“Latino firms are in critical sectors of the economy, both traditional sectors that need to remain strong and entering new sectors like the green jobs sectors that are going to grow the regional economy,” said [Dr. J.R. DeShazo, Director of the Lewis Center in the UCLA School of Public Affairs].

One strength: Latino-businesses are more likely to offer a higher return on investment. One weakness: the Latino business sector lacks technical and banking assistance, which are both key to a business’s long-term growth. Latino businesses tend to be underserved by banking institutions and are more vulnerable when making banking decisions.

The study calls for more policy advocacy for Latino businesses.

While Latino political engagement has increased over the last decade, Latinos have not done as much in advocating for its business community, according to DeShazo. The lack of time and resources, as well as the lack of access to business associations in the region may be factors in the current state of Latino business people’s civic engagement, he says. “One of the most important things we can do as an organization is policy advocacy,” DeShazo said.

To read the full article and more about the study’s recommendations, click here.

2007 saw 937 Hispanic worker deaths compared to 533 in 1992 (a 76% increase); nationwide, total fatalities have dropped in that time period (USA Today reports.) Texas alone reported 50 Hispanic workplace deaths last year.

While an increase of Hispanics in the general workforce has increased as well, it’s clear that there are other reasons causing the discrepancy. First, there’s the language barrier—workers who aren’t able to communicate important information to their supervisors, and vice versa, can miss important instructions that lead to accidents. Then, illegal workers are often exploited—not given proper safety tools for example, or are overworked.

Some more reasons cited:

Workers without legal documentation to be in the U.S. are less inclined to join a union, which helps protect workers, or protest when conditions seem dangerous, said Raj Nayak of the California-based National Employment Law Project. “They’re doing the most dangerous work for longer hours,” Nayak said.

Click here to read the full USA Today article, where most info is gathered from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Relatedly, many workers and their families are not aware of their right to compensation when an accident occurs (legal and illegal workers alike).  See post “Lack of safety training keeps Hispanic construction workers dangerously out of the loop.”

Even though Tom Zabkowski has lived in the United States for almost 20 years after immigrating from Poland, he struggles to lose his accent. What’s more, he believes it’s holding him back in job interviews.

Many people with foreign accents have recently been taking accent-reduction classes because they don’t feel that they are being understood, and are therefore less marketable. Accent-reduction coaches interviewed for the Tribune report say they’ve seen a recession-related increase in students.

Employment experts say it’s not just Zabkowski who’s putting in the effort to make himself clearer and more marketable — in this down economy, every advantage helps when applying for a job, and accent reduction is part of that.

Stephanie Bickel, who runs a speaking firm with six instructors in Chicago, says that some people are not coming in to reduce a foreign accent, but to change the tone of their voice to sound more professional. “There’s been a noticeable increase in [American] men and women seeking to lower the pitch of their voices,” Bickel said. “It’s a trend that seems to be recession-related.”

Read the full story here.

Skin color, social status and accent are all underlying prejudices that Hispanic employers may consider in Hispanic job applicants, confesses a blogger who works in the multicultural advertising/marketing industry.

It may not be conscious, but Rochelle Newman-Carrasco says that this discrimination is common practice, the so-called “elephant in the room.”

On skin color:

“If truth be told, there are U.S. Hispanic agencies whose staff photos simply do not reflect the diversity of the U.S. Hispanic population as a whole. Black Hispanics have historically found it difficult to find acceptance within some Hispanic circles.”

On accent:

“There are any number of accented Latinos who not only can make themselves understood, but also can out-think and outperform some of their non-accented co-workers. Nonetheless, over the past six months, I have received at least two calls from general-market colleagues about creative positions they were seeking to fill. And in both cases they were hoping I knew someone who “didn’t have an accent” because they didn’t feel their clients would be comfortable.”

Click here to read the full blog post by Newman-Carrasco.