Arizona

Report: Latinos are main contributors to Arizona’s growing labor force

Published

4 months ago

January 19, 2024

Report: Latinos are main contributors to Arizona’s growing labor force

Latinos are the main contributors to Arizona’s growing labor force, largely because they tend to be younger and have higher birth rates than the rest of the population, according to a new report.

But because Latinos tend to work in lower-paying jobs and, therefore, on average, earn lower wages than their peers, their economic output lags behind their share of the overall population, the report found.

The report produced by the Latino Donor Collaborative, a nonprofit research group, and Wells Fargo is intended to highlight the economic contributions of Latinos and underscore their potential to help fuel economic growth in the future through investments in education and training.

The report, presented during a symposium of business and community leaders Thursday at the Arizona Public Service headquarters in Phoenix, is also intended to reshape perceptions of Latinos, said Ana Valdez, president and CEO of the Latino Donor Collaborative.

The report “empowers Latinos, empowers who we really are, not just the perception, but the reality of who we are, which is that we are driving the economy. We are a gift to this country. We are the hardest working people,” Valdez told participants in a video address from Los Angeles.

What does the data say?

With nearly 1.05 million workers, Latinos make up about 33% of Arizona’s workforce. Between 2011 and 2021, Arizona’s workforce grew by 400,000 workers. Latinos made up 276,000 of the 400,000. That means Latinos represented 68.6% of the state’s overall workforce growth, the report said.

During that same period, Arizona’s labor force grew by 1.4% annually, the report said. But the Latino labor force grew more than twice as fast, at 3.1%, the report said.

“The main message here is that Latinos are a sizable fraction of the labor force, and they are contributing most of the growth in the labor force in the state,” said Jose Jurado, an ASU economist and co-author of the report with ASU economist Dennis Hoffman.

The reason is “Latinos tend to be much younger and have a higher birth rate than their peers, and that is allowing them to fill up positions in the labor force at a time where the population in the U.S. has become stagnant and the birth rate has decreased,” Jurado said.

‘A national economic tidal wave’

Latinos contribute $72.6 billion to Arizona’s economy, which means that about 17.3% of the state’s economic output is due to Latinos, the report said.

That 17.3%, however, lags behind the Latino share of the overall population, Jurado noted in an interview. Latinos make up about 33% of the state’s 7.4 million people.

That is because Latinos, on average, have lower annual incomes due to lower educational attainment, Jurado said.

Latinos also tend to have fewer assets that pay dividends or interest, he said.

“Closing this complex gap requires decisive public action, including narrowing the educational gap among members of this demographic. Even today, a college degree is associated with lifelong income increases,” Jurado said in an email.

The gap underscores the need to invest in Arizona’s Latino labor force to drive the state’s economy in the future, noted Jeffrey Guldner, president and CEO of Pinnacle West Capital Corp., which owns APS.

“What you see is this change in demographics really means investment we need to make to continue to drive our workforce to reflect the communities that we serve,” Guldner said during a panel discussion. “It’s a really important demographic that we need to pay attention to.”

The data shows that Arizona’s economy is being driven by the state’s growing Latino population, the increasing purchasing power of Latinos and the rising numbers of Latinos attaining education and training beyond high school, said Chris Camacho, president and CEO of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council.

Latinos, he said, represent “a national economic tidal wave.”

“My hope is that reports like this get embraced by the broader business and civic community,” Camacho said. “We are one of the states that has this really strong tailwind of really positive demographic change, and that is a small indicator of the broader U.S. picture.”

Reach the reporter at daniel.gonzalez@arizonarepublic.com.

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Arizona

Detroit Tigers game vs. Arizona Diamondbacks: Time, TV with Tarik Skubal on mound

Published

17 mins ago

May 17, 2024

Press Room

Detroit Tigers game vs. Arizona Diamondbacks: Time, TV with Tarik Skubal on mound

Detroit Tigers (21-22) vs. Arizona Diamondbacks (21-23)

When: 9:40 p.m. Friday

Where: Chase Field in Phoenix.

TV: Bally Sports Detroit. (Have Xfinity but still looking for a way to watch BSD? Here are some other options.)

Radio: WXYT-FM (97.1). (Tigers radio affiliates).

Weather report: Indoors.

Probable pitchers: Tigers LHP Tarik Skubal (5-0, 2.02 ERA) vs. Diamondbacks RHP Ryne Nelson (2-2, 5.33 ERA).

• Box score

Tigers lineup: TBD.

THIS IS GETTING RIDICULOUS: Every stellar pitching outing only makes Detroit Tigers’ offense more excructiating

Game notes: The Detroit Tigers cannot hit. The Detroit Tigers cannot score. The Detroit Tigers can, however, pitch. And the best of the bunch will be on the mound Friday as the team looks for some much-needed momentum.

The Tigers have now lost four straight series after falling in consecutive games to the putrid Miami Marlins while scoring zero, yes, zero runs over the final two games. Reese Olson, who’s still looking for his first win of the year despite sporting a crazy 2.09 ERA (barely below Skubal’s ERA, who already has five wins), kicked things off with another stellar performance. He held the Marlins scoreless through eight, Jason Foley got them through the ninth, but the extra base runner cost them in extra innings as they lost, 1-0.

Pain.

The next day presented a great opportunity for a bounceback. Casey Mize got off to a bad start, giving up two runs through the first two batters, but then held the Marlins scoreless the rest of the day, as did the bullpen. All the Tigers had to do was score three runs over 18 innings on Tuesday and Wednesday and they would’ve won both games. They did not score once.

Pain.

The Tigers need to hope for a return to the mean at this point, because even for a team that struggles at the plate, zero runs over 19 innings is diabolically bad.

If the Tigers’ bats spit in the face of the math and they stay ice cold, they have the best possible guy on the mound to still give them a chance to win. Skubal has been one of, if not the best pitcher in all of baseball, and compared to some of the other members of the Tigers’ pitching staff, he’s actually gotten some decent run support.

In the eight games that Skubal has started for the Tigers this year, the team averages 4.88 runs per game. If the Tigers could do that every game, they would have the sixth-best offense in baseball. When Olson pitches for the Tigers, which has also been eight times, the Tigers average 2.13 runs per game, which would easily be last in baseball.

Chalk it up to chance, small sample size or just the added confidence that the Tigers play with when Skubal is pitching, but whatever that juju is, the Tigers will need all of it as they try and snap a scoreless innings streak they seemingly can’t ditch.

After Friday night’s late showdown, the Tigers will play the Diamondbacks again on Saturday for another 9:40 p.m. start with Jack Flaherty on the mound.

TIGERS NEWSLETTER: What history tells us about Spencer Torkelson’s slow start

Live updates

For updates from and around the diamond, check it out on X.

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Arizona

Court paperwork details how Arizona man faked his own death

Published

7 hours ago

May 17, 2024

Press Room

Court paperwork details how Arizona man faked his own death

New court paperwork reveals how an Arizona man tried to fake his own death and how police tracked him down to a Mesa home. Deputies say Benjamin Hollins is a sex offender but failed to register and then lied about taking his own life at the Roosevelt Bridge. He was found living with a family with children under a fake name.

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Arizona

Biden administration invests in Arizona’s semiconductor industry ahead of the 2024 election

Published

15 hours ago

May 16, 2024

Press Room

Biden administration invests in Arizona’s semiconductor industry ahead of the 2024 election

As the standoff between Chinese and U.S. trade continues, President Joe Biden’s administration is seizing the opportunity to invest in a key battleground state ahead of the 2024 election by granting direct funding and loans to advance the production of semiconductor chips in Arizona.

In March, the Biden administration announced that the Department of Commerce reached a preliminary agreement with Intel to provide $8.5 million in direct funding and $11 billion in loans under the CHIPS and Science Act. The money would go toward expanding the California-based tech company’s facilities in Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio and Oregon. Intel has a large presence in Arizona with four semiconductor factories built and two more under construction.

Then, in April the administration announced a second preliminary agreement with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, commonly referred to as TSMC, to expand two already existing projects in Arizona and add a third.

Also, Micron recently received a $6.1 billion for their projects in New York and Idaho and Samsung received $6.4 billion for their project in Texas through the CHIPS and Science Act.

Semiconductors, a crucial piece for technology like electric vehicles, have become a focal point in trade conflict with China. The CHIPS and Science Act was passed in 2022 to combat U.S. reliance on East Asia for semiconductors. It laid out $52.7 billion for semiconductor research, development and manufacturing.

The investments by the Department of Commerce are projected to bring thousands of jobs to Arizona in manufacturing and construction. The White House estimates that TSMC will bring over 25,000 jobs to Arizona and Intel estimates their project will bring another 10,000 jobs.

“Thanks to my CHIPS and Science Act — a key part of my Investing in America Agenda — semiconductor manufacturing and jobs are making a comeback” Biden said in a written statement.

Companies invested in Arizona ahead of CHIPS Act awards

CHIPS funding landing in Arizona is no coincidence. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) played key roles in getting the act passed in 2022 by acting as chief negotiators.

“The goal of the chips and science act is to bring microchip manufacturing back to America and at the same time create really good paying jobs and strengthen our supply chains,” said Kelly in a press release following the announcement of the investment to Intel.

Kelly, who sits on the committees for Energy and Natural Resources and Environment and Public Works, was a top recipient of contributions from the electronics manufacturing industry in the 2020 and 2022 election cycles. He has received $2.5 million over the course of his career in Congress, which began with his 2019 campaign. He won that election and entered office that year.

Sinema accepted $553,000 since her first congressional campaign in 2012, trailing behind Kelly. She served three terms in the House and was elected to the Senate in 2019. She announced her decision not to run again last month.

Intel and TSMC were among the top spenders who lobbied on electronics manufacturing and equipment in 2023. Intel spent about $6.9 million while TSMC spent nearly $3 million. In the first quarter of this year, both companies continued to lobby, with Intel spending $1.6 million and TSMC spending $690,000.

Companies are not required to disclose specifics of how this money was spent but an OpenSecrets analysis found that nine lobbyists for Intel and eight lobbyists for TSMC lobbied the Department of Commerce in 2023. Each company had eight lobbyists lobbying the department in the first quarter of 2024.

Arizona’s role in the 2024 election

With 11 electoral college votes up for grabs, Arizona could be crucial to Biden’s reelection campaign. Biden narrowly won the state by .03% in 2020.

Biden’s campaign is the top recipient of contributions from the electronics manufacturing and equipment industry. Intel ranks ninth among those contributors, with individual donations adding up to $40,000.

Intel has also invested in Arizona’s toss-up Senate race, an election that could determine whether Democrats retain their slim majority. Likely Democratic candidate Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) received over $7,000 in individual donations this cycle. He is also one of the top recipients of money from the electronics manufacturing industry for this cycle with contributions topping $257,000. He is largely outraising his likely opponent, Kari Lake, who has only received about $25,000 from the industry.

This story was originally published on May 9, 2024, by OpenSecrets, and is republished here with permission.

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