Memo to myself and to my Prospanica Family:

As we gear up to attend this year’s Power of Performance: Leadership at the Next Level Conference in September, I’ve been thinking a lot about the meaning behind this Conference’s title. Power of Performance reminds me of all the statistical or qualitative research that we all have become well-versed at to validate and substantiate the power of Hispanics at many levels, and the impact this power has in the U.S. economy.  Here’s the memo I wrote to myself as an at-a-glance reminder of our force and influence in key measurable areas:

• Population:  According to the U.S. Census, one of every two babies born today in the U.S. is Hispanic.  We are currently 18% (57 million) of the population – that’s almost one of every 5 people! – and 25% of Americans under 18 years of age are Hispanic.  So it’s no surprise that our buying power will be a whopping $1.7 trillion by 2020, based on projections by the Selig Center for Economic Growth.
• Workforce:  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 26.1 million Hispanics in the U.S. workforce in 2015, and their unemployment rate averaged 6.6% – compared to 5% among non-Latinos. Fourteen states had a Hispanic workforce of more than 400,000, accounting for 83% of the total Hispanic workforce. Among adult men in the largest race and ethnicity groups, Hispanics continued to have the highest employment–population ratio at 76.3%. 
• Business:  Latinos are significantly impacting the growth in number of small businesses in the U.S., playing a substantial role in local job creation and economic development.  The State of Latino Entrepreneurship 2015 report revealed that between 2007 and 2012, the number of Latino-owned businesses grew by 46.9% compared to just 0.7% for non-Latino owned businesses.
• Education:  Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), defined by the Higher Education Act as degree-granting institutions with Full-Time Equivalent undergraduate enrollments that are at least 25% Hispanic, represented 472 academic institutions in the U.S. enrolling 1,962,353 Hispanics, according to the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. The number of HSIs has grown rapidly, from 189 in 1994, to 245 in 2005, and 472 in 2015.  College enrollment rates among Hispanic females graduating from high school now outpace both non-Hispanic whites and African-Americans, based on recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
• Politics:  According to Pew Research Center projections, a record 27.3 million Latinos are eligible to vote, representing 12% of all eligible voters. Millennials make up 44% of Latino eligible voters and are the main driver of growth in the Latino electorate. From 2012 to 2016, 3.2 million young U.S.-born Latinos turned 18, accounting for the 80% growth in Latino eligible voters during this period.  It’s also important to note that currently 66,000 Hispanics are turning 18 years old every month across the nation.
• Culture: American culture is infused by the sights and sounds of our rich heritage. Hispanics are making their mark on everything from theater, sports, and music, to social media, fashion and American cuisine. Despacito we are defining the new mainstream because everyone can appreciate the traditional recipes of our abuelitas that spice up many restaurant menus across the country.