Español en el sitio de trabajo | Spanish on the Jobsite

Spanish on the Jobsite or Spanish in the Workplace

Español en el sitio de trabajo o en español en el lugar de trabajo

According to a 2012 Pew Center poll, nearly one-third of Hispanics speak and read English "very well" or "pretty well." Among third-generation Hispanics, the number climbs to 96%.

So, with each new generation of Hispanics becoming more accustomed to carrying on a conversation or reading English, is there still a place for Spanish publication? Constru-Guía al día Magazine (and it's online publication: http://www.miconstruguia.com/ available in Spanish and English) and Pro Tool Reviews online site are betting there is still a need for Spanish content, especially when it comes to professional contractors.

Facts and Figures on the state of Hispanics in the Construction Industry

• Nearly one in four construction workers (24.4%) is Latino, compared to 15.4% of all employed workers. About 2.2 million Latinos work in the construction industry, the sixth largest employer of Latinos.
• The construction industry employs 10.2% of the Latino labor force.
• The jobs with the greatest share of Latino workers are painters (42.6% Latino) and construction laborers (41.2% Latino).
• By contrast, Latinos represent only 14% of first-line supervisors and only 9.4% of managers.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "May 2012 national industry-specific occupational employment and wage estimates," Occupational Employment Statistics

In 2002, Hanley-Wood became the first publishing group to introduce a Spanish publication dedicated to the construction industry, El Nuevo Constructor. With a strong stable of B2B construction related publications, a great deal of the content was leveraged from Tools of the Trade, Remodeling, Journal of Light Construction and other magazines and this worked well for almost seven years.

Latin Press, a company that in 2009 produced eight (8) Spanish language business-to-business publications with a total 80,000+ audited circulation, bought El Nuevo Constructor. Additionally, the firm produced a bi-weekly rich-data subscription service on construction and renovation projects.

Four years later and a reported circulation of 36,000, the publication said that the main reason for discontinuing El Nuevo Constructor was "the many difficulties facing the construction industry in the United States today."

Launched as a magazine in 2007, Constru-Guía as dia (up-to-date construction guide) is now the largest circulated construction industry magazine in the U.S. regardless of language and is the largest circulated Hispanic male magazine in the country.

A quick review of the Spring 2014 edition, advertisers (Spanish) include:

• GMC*
• Ridgid
• Behr
• WD-40
• Dap
• Ryobi
• Kilz
• Werner
• Progressive*
• USG*
• Hart
• Powerade
• AlEn
• Sakrete
• Quickrete
• Makita

* - Not available at Home Depot

Most ads were tagged with Home Depot logo and the primary source of distribution for Constru-Guía as dia is Home Depot.

The owners and staff at Pro Tool Reviews are heavily involved in community service and inner city ministry. In fact, some of their freelance reviewers are professional homebuilders and even ministry staffers who serve inner city neighborhoods. This not only affords them some really excellent stories and scenarios in which to engage in real-world tool-testing, it also puts them in contact with lots of Spanish-speaking professionals both in and out of the community.

Here's what Clint DeBoer, owner and founder of Pro Tool Reviews, had to say with regard to bilingual speakers and the Internet:

"I've got a lot of friends who go to all different parts of the world to translate and provide bibles in the native tongues of various people groups. They do this because if you really want to reach people through the written word, you're going to do it in their "heart" language. It really doesn't matter if a Latin American moved to the United States and has the ability to speak English. If their native language is Spanish, then I want them to be able to receive the helpful information we provide in the language which speaks to them most directly. Our research tells us that our Spanish language efforts will be successful, but that's not the reason we're doing this. The reason is tied to meeting people right where they're at and not forcing them to read in a secondary language."

The Construction market has the largest expected growth of Latino workers, with an average 2.9% annual growth rate expected from 2010 through 2020. Even as of 2010, however, Latinos as a percent of total employed in the Construction industry equals 24.4% of the total workforce!**

Given this expected rapid growth of Latino workers in the construction industry, and the continued growth and adoption rates of technology use on the job site, the remaining publications serving that demographic well stand to gain considerable recognition. For Constru-Guía al día Magazine (along with it's online version) that means continued growth in consumers of its print magazine, while the Pro Tool Reviews website should see tremendous growth in the search and social markets which direct Latino-speaking professionals into its content-rich online property. The future looks bright for both of these publications and the Latino market will have quite a bit of very helpful industry information, news and product reviews at its fingertips as a result.

** U.S. Department of Labor 's Bureau of Labor Statistics, December 2013 (USDL-13-2393)

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