Search the site...

SOL DE MEDIANOCHE
  • MARCH 2023
  • FEBRUARY 2023
  • JANUARY 2023
  • DECEMBER 2022
  • NOVEMBER 2022
  • OCTOBER 2022
  • SEPTEMBER 2022
  • AUGUST 2022
  • JULY 2022
  • JUNE 2022
  • MAY 2022
  • APRIL 2022
  • MARCH 2022
  • FEBRUARY 2022
  • JANUARY 2022
  • DECEMBER 2021
  • NOVEMBER 2021
  • OCTOBER 2021
  • SEPTEMBER 2021
  • AUGUST 2021
  • JULY 2021
  • JUNE 2021
  • MAY 2021
  • APRIL 2021
  • MARCH 2021
  • FEBRUARY 2021
  • JANUARY 2021
  • DECEMBER 2020
  • NOVEMBER 2020
  • Advertise with us!
  • OCTOBER 2020
  • SEPTEMBER 2020
  • AUGUST 2020
  • JULY 2020
  • JUNE 2020
  • MAY 2020
  • MAR - APR 2020
  • JAN - FEB 2020
  • NOVEMBER 2019
  • SEPTEMBER 2019
  • JULY 2019
  • MAY 2019
  • MARCH 2019
  • FEBRUARY 2019
  • NOVEMBER 2018
  • SEPTEMBER 2018
    • Yes on Salmon
    • Become a citizen
  • JUNE 2018
  • APRIL 2018
  • FEBRUARY 2018
  • DECEMBER 2017
  • SEPTEMBER 2017
  • JULY 2017
  • MAY 2017
  • Spring 2017 - No. 5
  • Winter 2016 - No. 4
  • Fall 2016 - No. 3
  • Summer 2016 - No. 2
  • Spring 2016 - No. 1
  • Contact
  • MARCH 2023
  • FEBRUARY 2023
  • JANUARY 2023
  • DECEMBER 2022
  • NOVEMBER 2022
  • OCTOBER 2022
  • SEPTEMBER 2022
  • AUGUST 2022
  • JULY 2022
  • JUNE 2022
  • MAY 2022
  • APRIL 2022
  • MARCH 2022
  • FEBRUARY 2022
  • JANUARY 2022
  • DECEMBER 2021
  • NOVEMBER 2021
  • OCTOBER 2021
  • SEPTEMBER 2021
  • AUGUST 2021
  • JULY 2021
  • JUNE 2021
  • MAY 2021
  • APRIL 2021
  • MARCH 2021
  • FEBRUARY 2021
  • JANUARY 2021
  • DECEMBER 2020
  • NOVEMBER 2020
  • Advertise with us!
  • OCTOBER 2020
  • SEPTEMBER 2020
  • AUGUST 2020
  • JULY 2020
  • JUNE 2020
  • MAY 2020
  • MAR - APR 2020
  • JAN - FEB 2020
  • NOVEMBER 2019
  • SEPTEMBER 2019
  • JULY 2019
  • MAY 2019
  • MARCH 2019
  • FEBRUARY 2019
  • NOVEMBER 2018
  • SEPTEMBER 2018
    • Yes on Salmon
    • Become a citizen
  • JUNE 2018
  • APRIL 2018
  • FEBRUARY 2018
  • DECEMBER 2017
  • SEPTEMBER 2017
  • JULY 2017
  • MAY 2017
  • Spring 2017 - No. 5
  • Winter 2016 - No. 4
  • Fall 2016 - No. 3
  • Summer 2016 - No. 2
  • Spring 2016 - No. 1
  • Contact

Unemployment ravages the
​Hispanic community


BY ISABELLE MERCADO

Picture

Countless Hispanic workers in Anchorage have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. The work most of them carry out refers to tourism and hospitality, construction, recreation, restaurants, shops, child and elderly care, in short, the services sector, which has been severely affected as it has been necessary to partially or definitively suspend causing a deep recession throughout 2020.

Dayra Valades, who works for the Unite Here, Local 878 in Anchorage, Alaska, notes “The hospitality and tourism industry has been greatly affected. Our union represents hotel and restaurant employees, among others. Approximately 85 percent of our members have been affected either with reduction to their working hours, or full unemployment.”

Since the middle of the year unemployment woes had already been felt in the United States. With 20.5 million jobs reported lost since April, and the Hispanic community being hit the hardest, the Department of Labor reported that of the total unemployed, 19 percent are Latino, and of which, women are the majority.

Dayra Valades, who is directly observing the current situation, states that “we are definitely going through an economic and political crisis in the wake of the pandemic. Economically, our communities are devastated, jobs are extremely limited, not only in the industry where workers had been employed before the pandemic, but in other industries as well. It is noted that even when workers are willing to change industries, the jobs available are too limited causing the level of unemployment to be extremely high.”

By August, employers had hired 1.4 million workers as part of the economic recovery, still this is 11.5 million fewer jobs than those recorded in pre-pandemic February.

People who live day to day do not have savings because of the low salary they receive, and the undocumented are obviously not in a position to apply for unemployment benefits. “When we add to the absence of jobs that no other economic stimulus package has been approved, we see that the amount received from unemployment insurance is not enough for families to meet their very basic needs,” Valades adds.

Currently, the employment landscape for the community at large is not favorable. As a spokesman for many Hispanic workers in Alaska, Dayra notes “ As workers, we are ready to return to a job, but we don’t have one to go back to, or even have a way of starting over. It is devastating to see that because the pandemic is worldwide, the option to migrate elsewhere is not the answer, as the situation is terribly similar everywhere.”
​

In Alaska, it is expected that after vaccines have been received, the hospitality industry will recover quickly.  The return of cruise companies such as Holland America-Princess, one of the largest and most important lines that operates in the state each year, and that also owns and operates different hotels, would bring a high number of jobs back.

In other countries

In Latin America, according to data from the International Labor Organization (ILO) in its latest report “Labor Overview During Covid-19 Time,” nearly 34 million people have lost their jobs due to the pandemic, indicating an all-time record. The nine countries included in this report are Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
​
Covid-19’s resurgence threatens a total economic recovery, as business closures in different sectors have been repeated and there is strong global uncertainty about the immediate future. ​

PROUDLY POWERED BY SOL DE MEDIANOCHE NEWS, LLC.
Sol de Medianoche is a monthly publication of the Latino community in Anchorage, Alaska