HispanicBusiness.com

According to “The Employment Situation for January 2009″ released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today, the unemployment rate for Hispanics rose from 9.2 to 9.7 percent in January. The number of unemployed Hispanics rose to 2.13 million in January up from 1.39 million in January 2008. The jobless rate for Hispanic teenagers reached 24.3 percent and 20.8 percent for all U.S. teenagers.

Overall, total U.S. non-farm payroll employment continued to trend down very sharply (-598,000). January’s drop in payroll employment followed sharp declines of 577,000 in December and 597,000 in November, as revised. In January, employment fell across all major industry sectors. Only health care added 19,000 jobs and private education added 33,000 jobs. Average hourly earnings rose by 5 cents, or 0.3 percent, over the month.

The total number of unemployed in the U.S. rose to 11.6 million in January, and the total U.S unemployment rate increased by 0.4 percentage point to 7.6 percent, a 16-year high. Over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed persons has increased by 4.1 million and the unemployment rate has risen by 2.7 percentage points, with most of the increase in unemployment occurring over the past 3 months.

In January, the unemployment rates for adult men (7.6 percent), adult women (6.2 percent), whites (6.9 percent), blacks (12.6 percent), and Hispanics (9.7 percent) increased.

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By Jeff Kass, Rocky Mountain News

AeroMexico marked its inaugural flight from Mexico City to Denver with a full plane Sunday and is hoping for many more.

Sunday’s flight marked the beginning of daily, nonstop flights between Denver and Mexico City, where the carrier is based.

“Passenger traffic trends also indicate that important, unmet demand exists for this service,” AeroMexico’s vice president for the U.S. division, Frank Galan, said in a news release. AeroMexico officials could not be reached for more details, but Evergreen aviation consultant Mike Boyd said there is plenty of business and “visiting friends and relatives” travel to justify the route. “This should be a barnburner for them.” Boyd has worked with other cities to lure AeroMexico.

AeroMexico’s return flight to Mexico City on Sunday was “decently full,” Galan said.

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As a boy on the rough streets of Washington Heights, N.Y., 46-year-old Marcos Rodriguez saw his father toil as a hotel waiter to raise his kids. His dad, once a successful Havana businessman, had lost his land to the Cuban regime.

Vowing to honor his parents’ hard work, Rodriguez earned an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, worked for GE in Mexico, then became a successful financier.

“One great lesson I learned from my parents,” Rodriguez says, “is that no one can take away what’s in your heart and in your head.”

Reflecting his father’s entrepreneurial spirit, Rodriguez left buyout firm Joseph Littlejohn & Levy 11 years ago to launch Palladium Equity Partners, a fast-growing investment firm in New York with $1 billion invested in Latino-related small and midsize companies.

“We’re bringing Wall Street to the barrio,” Rodriguez says.

Palladium and a growing number of private-equity firms invest in what bankers call the “U.S. emerging domestic market,” or ethnic and urban businesses. More than 55 such firms manage $10 billion in capital, according to the National Association of Investment Companies.

Competition increasing

Now, large investors and Fortune 500 companies are vying for Hispanic, African-American and Asian-American consumers. Palladium especially is eyeing the 40 million Latinos who are 15% of the U.S. population. Market-research firm HispanTelligence projects U.S. Latino purchasing power will hit $1 trillion by 2010.

Boasting investment professionals with global experience, Palladium invests in Hispanic-owned businesses that cater to Hispanic consumers in banking, retail, media, health care and business services.

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