“I applied for everything,” says Quintana, of Mexican descent. The driver position? No call back. The restaurant position? Scratch. Golf caddy? Nothing. “I don’t know if it was the age factor, but I never got a response from any employer,” he says. He had worked the fields in rural Colorado, spent 14 years in the U.S. Army, later held blue-collar jobs, and eventually shed the comfort of retirement to scour the want ads. Yet despite his impeccable track record, he received not one call.

Quintana’s work history and desire to continue contributing as an employee reflect the findings of two new studies about Latino workers, the fastest-growing sector of the work force. A study by the Urban Institute for AARP forecasts a promising future for older Latino workers. Another study, by the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), a Latino civil rights and advocacy organization, documents today’s tremendous challenges. The bright future forecast for older Latinos could depend on whether the documented challenges are addressed—for all ages.
 
Those challenges are familiar to Quintana. In the 1950s he dropped out of school to load hay, earning a penny a bale—about $5 a day. Later he made $1.90 an hour in a potato warehouse, where he sorted, washed, bagged, and stacked potatoes. For extra hours he got paid straight time, no overtime. He’d arrive home with scraped knees and elbows. “Every penny we made, it went to Mom,” Quintana says.
 

Older Latino workers may lack protections, but they don’t lack numbers. In fact, employers likely will come to rely even more on older Hispanics because of a possible labor shortage, according to research by the Urban Institute for AARP. The study, “50+ Hispanic Workers: A Growing Segment of the U.S. Workforce,” forecasts that the traditional labor pool—individuals ages 25 to 54—will hardly increase over the next ten years. Although this pool of workers shot up 71 percent from 1970 to 2000, it’s expected to inch up by only 2.6 percent from now until 2020, says Richard Johnson, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute.
 
At the same time, the population aged 50 to 69 will expand by 34 percent. As part of that Baby Boomer wave, the number of older Hispanics is projected to grow to about 11 million in ten years, nearly double the 5.6 million boomers in 2007. Moreover, older Hispanics remain active in the workforce—about seven in 10 were either working or looking for work in 2007. Quintana was one of them.
 
“I think we’re going to have a labor shortage, and employers are going to have less to choose from,” Johnson says. “Those trends are really going to increase demand for all older workers, and that will leak over to Hispanics.”

Starting Over
Hiring applicants such as Quintana is a good bet, says Ignacio Salazar, chair of the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility, a coalition of 13 organizations dedicated to increasing the presence of Hispanics in corporate America. “[Companies] just need to give them an opportunity,” he says.
 
Quintana got that opportunity through the U.S. Labor Department’s Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), which provides training for low-income job seekers ages 55 and older. He came out of retirement because he wanted to contribute to the household. “I thought to myself, ‘My wife, she’s been working.’ I felt like I was taking advantage of her, you know?” he says. “I feel proud of myself, knowing I went out there at my age and made it.” Now he works 30 hours a week as a receptionist at Catholic Charities in Greeley, Colorado.

“Age is not a liability. It’s an asset,” says Paul Scheidig, director of SCSEP at the Rocky Mountain SER (Service, Employment, and Redevelopment). “We make sure employers understand that.”