Latinas contributed $1.3 trillion to the U.S. economy, according to a new report. That number could be even higher

Latinas make substantial contributions to the U.S. economy.

According to a recent study, the female Latin American population contributed $1.3 trillion to the gross domestic product in 2021, up from $661 billion in 2010. report financed by Bank of America.

That means a real GDP growth of 51.1% between 2010 and 2021, which means an economic contribution 2.7 times that of the non-Hispanic population.

The total output of U.S. Latinas in 2021 was also greater than that of the entire state of Florida that year, the report said, citing data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In fact, only those from California, Texas, and New York, respectively, were larger that year.

Despite these big numbers, some economists think U.S. Latinas could make a larger contribution to GDP than stated in the report.

Belinda Román, an associate professor of economics at St. Mary’s University, said there is activity in several areas that the data may not capture. Childcare is one of them.

“A lot of it is uncompensated care,” she said in an interview with CNBC. “Interestingly enough, there are a lot of Latinas in that space that you won’t see in these numbers, so I think to some extent it may not be big enough.”

Economist Mónica GarcÃa-Pérez also believes this figure could be higher, saying that some of the “unmeasured” contributions of Latinas – like, for example, a stay-at-home mother caring for other neighbors’ children – €” cause “other groups can participate in the labor market.”

She also pointed out the professional positions they hold in general as this poses some difficulties in assessing their contributions.

“This group is very sensitive to shocks, and it could be related to their presence in sectors where there is a lot of mobility or turnover,” said the professor of economics at Fayetteville State University. She added that these are mainly concentrated in the healthcare and service sectors, such as healthcare, retail and hospitality. This makes them a “moving part” in economic cycles.

For example, in the event of a recession, García-Pérez said Latinas “will likely lose their jobs much faster in the sectors they operate in,” as seen during the Covid-19 pandemic. “But they are also more likely to be reinserted into the market because the entry costs and the types of positions they enter have lower barriers.”

When it comes to labor force participation, Latinas surpass other groups, the BofA report found.

From 2000 to 2021, the employment rate for Latinas increased by 7.5 percentage points. On the other hand, non-Hispanic women’s employment rates were flat during the same period.

The group was also more resilient than others. Although labor force growth slowed overall in 2020, growth rates for Spanish men and women were still positive. Conversely, non-Latino labor force growth that year was negative, meaning more people left the labor force than entered it.

In addition, Latin American GDP grew more than five times as fast as non-Latin GDP between 2019 and 2021, with an increase of 7.7% compared to 1.5%. Meanwhile, Latin American men’s GDP grew nearly four times as fast as non-Latino GDP during those years, at 5.9%.

These contributions are notable considering that Latino households have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic.

“When the broader economy is needed most, we actually see the most dramatic contributions from American Latinas,” said economist Matthew Fienup, co-author of the report and executive director of the Center for Economic Research and Forecasting at California Lutheran University. “While all Latinos are a source of economic strength, Latinas are the drivers of the vitality the economy needs.”

“If Covid-19 couldn’t stop this growth, it’s hard to see what would,” said David Hayes-Bautista, co-author and director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the School of Medicine from UCLA. .

Since the late 1970s, the share of Latinas with jobs has grown. Specifically, the employment-to-population ratio for the group increased from 41.6% in December 1978 to 56% in December 2023. facts of the Economic Policy Institute.

By comparison, the ratio of black women — who along with Latinas experience the most severe wage gaps compared to white, non-Hispanic men — increased by 11.9 percentage points. The measure for women overall increased by 8.8 percentage points over that period.

“Part of this is expanding opportunities for women,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist at EPI. Some of this is also due to a lack of wage growth for typical workers in recent decades, she said. “Because it can be difficult to get ahead, households may have had to put in more work hours to do better.”

That seems to be paying off to some extent. The growth of labor participation and a increase in education level result in income gains for the group, specifically about 2.5 times those of non-Hispanic women between 2010 and 2021, the BofA report co-authors found.

Hayes-Bautista also cited intergenerational shifts and the faster population growth of Latina women relative to Latina male and non-Latino populations as another catalyst of Latinas’ economic production.

“What we started seeing around the year 2000 is the first generation of immigrants aging out of the workforce,” he said. “As they grow older, their shoes are filled by their daughters and granddaughters, who are twice as numerous in terms of population size, and they bring with them a much higher level of human capital.”

In particular, Latinas have amplified the contributions of Latinos as a whole. Fienup told CNBC that the overall contributions of Latinos have positively boosted labor force growth in certain regions of the country, at a time when the non-Latino labor force was shrinking.

“We expect this dynamic to become increasingly important over the next thirty years,” he said. “What we’re seeing now is really just the beginning of what will become an increasingly important story in the American economy.”