As New Jersey's manufacturing sector shrinks, it remains a foothold for immigrants, mostly Latinos, who are coming to the state in startling numbers, according to Census data released Wednesday.
Manufacturing is rapidly declining in New Jersey, and the Garden State lost more than 24,000 production and transportation jobs since 2000. Yet Latino employment in this sector is going up - an increase of 27,000 jobs over the same brief period.
Latinos, who make up about 16 percent of New Jersey's workforce, now comprise more than a third of the manufacturing/transportation sector, the data shows. That's up from the 2000 Census when Latinos comprised 12 percent of the workforce and 26 percent of the manufacturing sector.
"It's been true for well over 100 years that immigrants have been the backbone of New Jersey's manufacturing workforce," said Chris Biddle, spokesman for the New Jersey Business and Industry Association. "The profile of the factory worker has shifted towards Latin America, but it underscores more than anything the importance of immigration to New Jersey's workforce."
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