Hispanic immigrants now more likely to be entrepreneurs than general U.S. population
The number of Hispanic entrepreneurs in America has grown exponentially over the past two decades, according to a new report. Hispanic immigrants in particular are now more likely to be entrepreneurs than the average member of the U.S. population overall.
From 1990 to 2012, the number of Hispanic entrepreneurs in America more than tripled, going from 577,000 to more than 2.0 million. This surge far outstripped population growth among the working-age Hispanic American population.
“With this report, we confirm that America’s Hispanic entrepreneurs are driving business formation and new job creation throughout America’s new economy,” said Sol Trujillo, Chairman of the Latino Donor Collaborative, which worked with The Partnership for a New American Economy to create the study.
The Bay Area clearly contributes to the rapid growth of Hispanic business owners.
In 2002, Mirsha Rodriguez of San Leandro became a business owner for the first time. She quit her job at an insurance office where she had big responsibilities but didn’t feel appreciated by the owner.
“I was not happy,” she says. “I enjoyed working but not working for someone else.”
Rodriguez called some people in the insurance industry and was able to open her own insurance office in Oakland in about two weeks.
Her business, Rightworks Insurance, has had good success selling insurance and other services to Hispanics all over the East Bay. It has also been a great deal of work – Rodriguez has seen many 12 hour days. She makes time for her customers even at the end of a long day.
“They are loyal to me because I am loyal to them, she says. “It’s Mexican style service – they call me and ask me to wait for them. I say, come over, I’ll help you.”
Rodriguez says that she knows where her attitude towards work and making money come from.
“We were raised to know that to have what we want and pursue our dreams, we need to work hard,” she says. “Anything I wanted, I had to get it on my own. At 16, I was working full time, helping my family.”
Two years ago, Rightworks Insurance opened a second office, this time in San Leandro. Growing any business is a risk but Rodriguez was driven as always.
“When I have in my mind to do something, I don’t stop until I do it,” she says. “Especially if someone says I can’t do it. Most people are afraid to take risks – I like to take risks.”
“For years, it has been clear that immigrant entrepreneurs have helped grow our nation’s economy while creating jobs and keeping us competitive with countries across the world,” said John Feinblatt, Chairman of the Partnership for a New American Economy. “Hispanic entrepreneurs are now playing an outsized role in business creation and powering our economy when we need them the most.”
Key findings from the report:
• Hispanic immigrants, particularly those from Mexico, played a key role in this growth. Between 1990 and 2012, the number of Hispanic immigrant entrepreneurs more than quadrupled, going from 321,000 to 1.4 million. At the same time, the number of self-employed Mexican immigrants grew by a factor of 5.4, reaching 765,000. Entrepreneurship became so established among Mexican immigrants that by 2012 more than one in 10 such immigrants was an entrepreneur.
• Hispanic entrepreneurs helped power the economy during the recent recession. While entrepreneurship rates among non-Hispanic, U.S.-born individuals dropped during the decade that included the recent recession, the number of Hispanic entrepreneurs grew by 71.5 percent.
• Hispanic immigrants now have higher entrepreneurship rates than the U.S. population overall. While 10.2 percent of the U.S. population was entrepreneurs in 2010, 11.0 percent of Hispanic immigrants were. By 2012, that gap had widened to 10.0 percent and 11.7 percent, respectively.