Milwaukee’s Latino, or Hispanic community has grown to represent an increasingly important segment of the Milwaukee-area’s population at large. In fact, its population growth is responsible for the region’s modest overall increase.
But while we know that, there are a lot of gaps in our knowledge of how some of the region’s newest residents are faring in the overall economy. Those are questions that the Hispanic Professionals of Greater Milwaukee organization wanted to explore.
The group turned to the Wisconsin Policy Forum, which just released a report that looks expressly at earning power and education levels. While it found some modest reasons for optimism, it also uncovered some significant challenges, especially in the area of earning power.
“When we look at occupations that pay at least $60,000 or higher,” explains senior researcher Joe Peterangelo, “Hispanics are very underrepresented in all of those. In many of them, they’re less than half the concentration you would expect, based on their size in the population.”
