NATIONAL DAY LABORERS STUDY

The first nationwide study of day laborers finds one in five has been hurt on the job and nearly half have been stiffed by employers. The survey also finds the immigrant men who wait for work on street corners across the country have families and attend church regularly. The study offers the most detailed snapshot to date of the mostly Hispanic, and often undocumented, day labor work force. The first nationwide study of America’s 117,600 day laborers was released today by social scientists from UCLA, the University of Illinois at Chicago and New York’s New School University, “On the Corner: Day Labor in the United States” presents findings from a survey of 264 hiring sites in 143 municipalities in 20 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Larry Mantle talks with the study’s co-author, Abel Valenzuela.