Report: Nevada Hispanics increasingly helping drive state’s economy

The Hispanic community is a growing force driving Nevada’s economy, boosting demand for goods, services and homes.

While the community’s full economic impact is difficult to gauge — in part, due to underreporting of income in U.S. Census Bureau data — a study released last week by the Partnership for a New American Economy gives a glimpse.

The partnership, a coalition of business groups and mayors advocating for immigration reform, says Hispanics in Nevada accounted for 16 percent of the state’s spending power in 2013. They contributed almost as much in tax revenue.

The group’s report came on the heels of Pew Research Center data showing that Hispanics were the first ethnic group to experience an increase in median real incomes since the economic crisis of 2008, and that their median household income grew by 3.5 percent in 2013 compared to 2012 — while the income levels of whites, blacks and Asians remained virtually unchanged.

“The demographic future of our country is clear, and Hispanics will make up an increasingly large portion of the U.S. workforce over the coming generation,” said Jeremy Robbins, the group’s executive director. “The economic megaphone of the Hispanic community is only going to get louder over the coming years.”

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