The State of the Hispanic Workforce

The State of the Hispanic Workforce

Hispanic workers are a growing base of the US workforce, and for the next phase of labor, this demographic is the key to stability 

Key findings

• Hispanic workers now make up more than 1 in 5 U.S. workers. The Hispanic workforce has grown from 11.4% of the US workforce in 2000 to 20.9% in 2026, and is expected to increase to 23.1% by 2035. 

• Hispanic workers are driving America's workforce growth. They accounted for 61% of labor supply growth over the past decade and are expected to account for all labor supply growth over the next decade. 

• The pay gap is narrowing. The income ratio for Hispanic workers to all workers has improved over the past decade from 66.7% to 72.7%.

• The fastest growth is in white-collar careers. While the largest gains in Hispanic employment have been in the physical supply chain and physical economy, Hispanic workers have seen the fastest gains in white-collar jobs and wages. 

Since BLS began collecting data on workers' ethnicity in 1973, the Hispanic workforce has steadily grown, accounting for a larger share of the overall US labor force. Since 2000, the share of Hispanic workers has risen from 11.4% to 20.9%. According to BLS employment projections, that share is expected to reach 23.1% by 2035. 

If not for the steady rise in Hispanic workers, the U.S. labor market would face a much steeper uphill climb. Between 2015 and 2025 (the decade tracked in this most recent run of the BLS employment projections), the U.S. civilian labor force expanded by 13.7 million people, with Hispanic workers accounting for 8.4 million—or roughly 61%—of that overall growth. Over the next decade, an aging population, lower birth rates, and slowing immigration are projected to limit total workforce growth to just 5.5 million. 

Yet, with the Hispanic labor force expected to add 6.2 million workers during that same window, this demographic group is single-handedly keeping the American labor force from contracting. With a higher-than-average birth rate and overall younger skew, the Hispanic population will be vital to continuing to grow the US workforce in the future. 

The largest job gains are concentrated in the physical supply chain

According to the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey microdata (ACS data accessed through IPUMS), the occupations adding the most Hispanic workers in raw numbers between 2014 and 2024 (the most recent data for this source) are predominantly concentrated in the physical supply chain and economy. 

• Skilled construction and building trades: Added 1.1 million workers.

• Machine operators: Added 500,000 workers across manufacturing and production.

• Food and beverage prep: Added 447,000 workers across service and hospitality roles.

• Laborers and warehouse workers: Added 406,000 workers to support logistics and fulfillment.

Hispanic workers aren't just gaining ground in hands-on fields. Of the 50 fastest-growing jobs in the U.S. since 2014, every single one saw its share of Hispanic workers rise.

Higher-paying, white-collar roles are seeing the fastest gains

Higher-paying, office and professional roles are seeing some of the most impressive gains in Hispanic representation and earnings across the economy between 2014 and 2024 in the census data. While service roles, including healthcare, account for the largest share of Hispanic workers, that share is dropping in favor of office and professional roles.

In 2014, 39.7% of all Hispanic workers were in service-type roles, falling to 36.0% in 2024. Office and professional roles absorbed this entire shift, going from 30.6% of all Hispanic workers in 2014 to 34.5% in 2024.

• Engineering management: $150K median pay. In the highest-paying field on the list, Hispanic workers more than doubled their share of workers in engineering management, from 4.7% to 10.4%. 

• Healthcare administration: Fast-growing. Hispanic workers went from 8.9% to 14.4% of the field, a 5.5-point gain. Median pay for Hispanic workers hit $71,000, still short of the $86,000 median pay for workers overall in this role, though.

• Project and program management: 54.2% pay jump. Pay for Hispanic workers shot up from $53,000 to $81,700. Their share of the workforce edged up from 11.6% to 12.4%.

• Nursing: 215,000 more Hispanic nurses. The number of Hispanic registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical nurses (LPNs) more than doubled, from about 207,000 to 422,000. Their share of the field climbed from 6.4% to 10.2%.

The wage gap is narrowing

Adjusting for inflation to 2024 dollars, the median income for Hispanic workers rose from $31,800 in 2014 to $40,000 in 2024, a 25.8% increase. That’s much higher than the 15.3% inflation-adjusted raise that overall workers saw over the same period (from $47,700 to $55,000). As a result, the dollar gap between Hispanic and overall median income narrowed from $15,900 to $15,000, and the Hispanic-to-overall income ratio rose from 66.7% to 72.7%. Even though Hispanic workers were still making $0.73 for every dollar workers overall made in 2024, the gap has narrowed over the past decade.

In ZipRecruiter’s recent job seeker confidence survey, Hispanic job seekers expect pay parity to continue improving. Hispanic job seekers expect their pay to increase by 28% in their next job, compared to 26% for non-Hispanic job seekers. Despite the wage gap, Hispanic job seekers are more likely to consider themselves financially comfortable (32.6%) than non-Hispanic job seekers (23.9%). 

What's ahead

Hispanic workers drove 61% of U.S. labor force growth over the past decade and are projected to drive all of it over the next. They're also moving into higher-paying, higher-skill occupations faster than the workforce overall, while narrowing the wage gap. Hiring pipelines, workforce planning, and skills investments that are built without accounting for the importance of the growing Hispanic base in the US workforce will miss the mark.

That makes the accuracy of the underlying data a growing concern. Response rates to the Current Population Survey have been declining for over a decade, from 90.3% in January 2013 to 66.1% in August 2026, a long-term trend that predates any single administration. At the same time, researchers have flagged unusually large swings in the estimated foreign-born population over the past year, which has been largely attributed to a change in who responds to government surveys.

Whatever the explanation, the stakes of getting this data right are rising alongside the numbers in this report. If Hispanic workers are set to account for all of U.S. labor force growth over the next decade, the accuracy of the data used to track them is the basis for how employers plan hiring, how policymakers plan for labor supply, and how the country understands where its workforce is actually headed.

Methodology

This analysis combines three federal data sources: workforce share figures (2000–2025) come from the BLS Current Population Survey; occupation and income data (2014–2024, minus 2020 due to sampling errors during the COVID-19 pandemic) are calculated from American Community Survey microdata, accessed via IPUMS USA, with income adjusted for inflation to 2024 dollars; and labor force projections (2025–2035) come from the BLS Employment Projections program. Data from ZipRecruiter’s Q3 Job Seeker Confidence Survey surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,500 job seekers between July 25th and August 12th, 2026.