Connecticut's high unemployment rate among Hispanics, or Latinos, which reached 17.7 percent last year, doesn't surprise those who follow the ups and downs of the state's largest minority group.

Elizabeth Garcia Gonzalez, director of Centro de la Comunidad in New London, said many jobs require education or training that Hispanics lack or that cannot be easily transferred to the United States. She added that recent immigrants' lack of English skills can sometimes bar the path to employment as well.

"Many individuals have a language barrier," Gonzalez said. "Citizenship status is another issue."

The U.S. Department of Labor released a new report Thursday that found Connecticut has the third-highest unemployment rate in the nation for Hispanics - up 5 percentage points from the year before. Only Rhode Island, with 21.8 percent unemployment, and Nevada, at 18.6 percent, have higher jobless rates for Hispanics.

Alejandro Melendez-Cooper, chairman of the local Hispanic Alliance, said he was surprised at the surge in joblessness among Hispanics in Connecticut. But he pointed out that the increasing unemployment rate came at a time when the Hispanic population has been growing and jobs have fallen by more than 100,000.

In Connecticut, the number of Hispanics grew by close to 50 percent, or by more than 158,000 people, between 2000 and 2010, according to the U.S. Census. Hispanics now make up 28 percent of New London's population of 27,620.

Nationwide, Hispanic unemployment last year averaged 12.5 percent, compared with a rate of 8.7 percent for whites and 16 percent for blacks, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau figures. The national unemployment rate peaked at 10.1 percent in October 2009.

Hispanics make only 70 cents for every dollar earned by whites, according to the Labor Department report. U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis said in a conference call Thursday that a gap in educational attainment between Hispanics and other groups is one of the main reasons for lagging employment percentages.

She added that the Department of Labor has been working on providing language training at its satellite offices around the country to improve the use of English in the workplace.

Labor Department chief economist Betsey Stevenson said some of the differences in employment percentages among states can be explained by Hispanics' concentration in certain fields. "We know some locations have been hard hit in construction," she said.

Only about one in six Hispanics has a four-year college degree, half the rate of whites, according to the report. What's more, the gap between whites and Hispanics in educational attainment has widened over the past decade.

Though the report gave no explanation for Hispanics' higher-than-average jobless rates, it noted that more than 80 percent of Hispanics are employed in the private sector. Whites and blacks are more likely than Hispanics to work for the government, it added.

"The economic situation is improving for all Americans, including Hispanics," the report noted.

The Labor Department said the new report provided the first comprehensive look at the state of the Hispanic worker since the 2007-2009 recession. It stated that the Obama administration is trying to address the high unemployment rate among Hispanics with a variety of programs, including those geared toward younger workers, training opportunities and educational assistance.

The U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute's Latino Index indicates that 1,281 Latino-run businesses operated in the state as of 2008. Other numbers released by the governor's office show the purchasing power of Hispanics in Connecticut surpassing $9 billion, and homeownership rates rising to 33 percent.

"Census results suggest steady movement by Latinos toward parity in numbers, even as the effort toward full equality and integration in our society is ongoing," said state Sen. Toni N. Harp, D-New Haven, in a statement.

l.howard@theday.com