For the first time, most new working-age hires in the U.S. are people of color

“I want to put my brain to use,” Hernández told her husband. “Now my son is here, and it makes me want to do even more.”

Hernández, 28, landed a job this spring as a part-time receptionist at Impressions Pediatric Therapy in Maryland, making her part of a surge of Hispanic and African American women who are entering the workforce amid one of the hottest labor markets in U.S. history.

Today, she earns $15 an hour, a big jump from the $9-an-hour cashier jobs she once thought would be her working life. Clients like that Hernández is bilingual, and the owner of the fast-growing therapy practice just offered her a full-time position.

The surge of minority women getting jobs has helped push the U.S. workforce across a historic threshold. For the first time, most new hires of prime working age (25 to 54) are people of color, according to a Washington Post analysis of data the Labor Department began collecting in the 1970s. Minority hires overtook white hires last year.”