New Statistics on Mexican American Professionals from the 2009 Community Survey
NEW STATISTICS ON MEXICAN AMERICAN OCCUPATIONS AND GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL DEGREES
By HUMBERTO (TITO) GUTIERREZ
Edited by Carol Ponzio
Graphs by Daniel Borg
The American Community Survey for 2009 has just been released by the Census Bureau.
OCCUPATIONS: Management, professional, and related occupations.
A comparison of the American Survey for the years 2008 and 2009 shows that Mexican Americans have gained .3% in Management, professional, and related occupations:
2008 Total population 34.9% vs. 15.5% for Mexican
2009 Total population 35.7% vs. 15.8% for Mexican
If you look closely, the gain in the total population is .8%. This number is higher than the gain by Mexican Americans which is .3%.
EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT
The results for Educational Attainment shows the following results:
Again I am comparing the years 2008 and 2009 from the American Community Survey.
Bachelor’s degree or higher
2008 Total population 27.7% vs. 9.0% for Mexican.
2009 Total population 27.0% vs. 9.0% for Mexican.
In this case there has been a drop of .7% in the total population with Bachelor’s degrees or higher. The percentage of Mexican Americans with Bachelor’s degrees or better has stayed the same at 9.0%. I will call this a small step towards improvement in our educational attainment.
A COUPLE OF SPECIFIC INDUSTRIAL AREAS
Civilian employed population 16 years and over:
2008 Professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services
Total population 10.4% vs. 9.9% for Mexican.
2009 Professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services
Total population 10.6% vs. 10.1% for Mexican.
These numbers show that in Science, Mexican Americans are represented in fairly even percentages in contrast to the total population. The only explanation I can think of for this equality is that Language and Culture do not play as big a role in Science as they do in other occupations.
The percentages also show a slight gain for Mexican Americans from 9.9% to 10.1%, although not as much of a gain as the general population which went from 10.4% to 10.6%.
One last industry:
Educational services, and health care and social assistance.
2008 total population 21.7% vs. 13.7% for Mexican.
2009 total population 22.7% vs. 14.5% for Mexican.
Although Mexican Americans didn’t make the same gain as the general population, the gain they made was close to the gain in the general population.
Sources:
1. U.S. Census Selected Population Profile in the United States.
Population Group: Mexican
Data Set: 2008 American Community Survey
see data here
2. U.S. Census Selected Population Profile in the United States.
Population Group: Mexican
Data Set: 2009 American Community Survey
see data here
