Latino news networks in the United States exist for one sole reason: to inform Hispanics who prefer watching relevant content in Spanish. As such, it would seem only natural for major economic news directly affecting that viewership to occupy headlines on the nation’s top Spanish-language media outlets. Yet, as MRC Latino has repeatedly noted, the subject is consistently either ignored or under-reported (see here, here, here and here), with the latest example being the new record low of 4.3% for Hispanic unemployment in February 2019.
In this case, the February employment numbers released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) only caught the attention of Univision - where anchor Ilia Calderón solely reported the numbers for the general population - and CNN en Español´s Directo USA, where anchor Juan Carlos López spent under one minute on the subject, omitting the fact that ever since BLS started tracking Hispanic unemployment statistics in 1973, it had never reached such a low, simply stating that “For Hispanics the rate fell from 4.9% to 4.3%.”
ILIA CALDERÓN, ANCHOR, UNIVISIÓN: … unemployment fell to only 3.8%, the lowest in 55 years.
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JUAN CARLOS LÓPEZ, ANCHOR, CNN EN ESPAÑOL: For Hispanics the rate fell from 4.9 to 4.3 percent.
Telemundo's silence on the subject was especially odd, given anchor José Díaz-Balart's March 4, 2019 story on booming Latino entrepreneurship in the United States. Among the data he eagerly noted during an extensive three- minute report just last week on Noticias Telemundo, Díaz-Balart mentioned that 1 out of 4 new businesses in this country are owned by a Latino, businesses owned by Latinos are growing twice as fast as the rest, and that Latino entrepreneurs are generating some $700 billion in annual income; all under the premise that through hard work Hispanics have fulfilled their dreams.
How good it would be if we saw more about the incredibly positive state of overall economic affairs related to Latinos on the nation’s leading Hispanic news networks. And the undeniable fact is that under Trump, since June 2018, Hispanic unemployment has set blockbuster new record lows four times: 4.6% in June 2018, 4.5% in July 2018, 4.4% in October 2018 and 4.3% in February 2019.
Below are the complete transcripts of the above-referenced reports as broadcast during the March 8, 2019 editions of Noticiero Univisión and CNN en Español’s Directo USA.
Noticiero Univisión
3/08/19
6:46 p.m. EasternILIA CALDERÓN, ANCHOR, UNIVISIÓN: The Department of Labor reported that during the month of February the nation´s economy created 20,000 new jobs. However, analysts had expected that the increase in jobs would be 180,000. Experts believe the bad winter weather influenced the decline. Meanwhile, unemployment fell to only 3.8%, the lowest in 55 years.
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Directo USA
3/08/19
5:16 p.m. EasternJUAN CARLOS LÓPEZ, ANCHOR, CNN EN ESPAÑOL: Meanwhile the U.S. economy seems, at least according to today´s figures, seems to have suddenly put on the brakes. What happened? The unemployment rate fell to 3.8%, but job creation for February disappointed experts. From 304,000 new jobs in January it moved to just 20,000 in February. At least 185,000 were expected. 200,000 is the average needed to maintain economic growth. It is the lowest number of jobs created since 2017. One of the reasons for the steep descent, according to the experts, would have been the bad weather in the United States. For Hispanics the rate fell from 4.9 to 4.3 percent. The explanation for the unemployment rate falling, despite fewer jobs being generated than normal, is that fewer people were looking for work.
