WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has made defending the U.S. middle class his war cry in this year’s electoral contest, but Hispanics feel that, as a group, they have been the most adversely affected by the paralysis in upward mobility, according to a national survey released on Thursday.

The survey by the Pew Hispanic Center said that 54 percent of Hispanics believe that their group has been the one most harmed by the economic decline of the last four years.

Fifty-nine percent of those surveyed are unemployed or know someone who has lost their job, and 75 percent described the state of their personal finances as “only fair” or “poor.”

Meanwhile, 28 percent of the people who are homeowners said they are underwater on their mortgages, according to the telephone survey of 1,220 Hispanics. The poll was conducted between Nov. 9 and Dec. 7 and has an error margin of 3.6 percent.

The middle class is the one that generates the most demand for consumer goods and services – with that consumption comprising 70 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product – and so its decline affects job creation.

The middle class consumers are those that spur development, manufacturing and product sales, but their salaries have remained stagnant.

The majority of analysts warn that without a strong middle class the country runs the risk of experiencing a reduction of investment in education and infrastructure along with growing social polarization.

“Without a doubt, Latinos have been knocked out by the recession, with a high rate of unemployment, mortgage foreclosures and poverty. President Obama’s plan could help millions of Latinos achieve the American Dream,” Melissa Boteach, an analyst at the Democratic-leaning Center for American Progress, told Efe.

Latinos, who make up 16 percent of the U.S. population, have been bringing up the rear in this country in several social indicators, but the gap has widened since 2005, a period which saw the collapse of the housing market and the Great Recession.

Between 2005 and 2009, the average net value of Latinos’ homes fell 66 percent, compared to 53 percent among African Americans and 16 percent among whites, according to figures cited by Pew.

Among Latinos, the unemployment rate stood at 11 percent last month, compared to 6.3 percent in December 2007, when the Great Recession began. Overall U.S. unemployment stood at 8.5 percent in December.

Between 2006 and 2010, the poverty level among Hispanics rose by about 6 percentage points to 26.6 percent. In contrast, the poverty level among whites rose from 8.2 percent to 9.9 percent, and among blacks, from 24.3 percent to 27.4 percent, according to Pew.

Upward social and economic mobility is a key barometer of the American Dream and, even before the Great Recession, statistics showed that a third of Americans who grew up with middle class comforts slipped downward on the social ladder when they became adults.

As part of his reelection campaign, Obama is undertaking a national tour to promote an economic plan to revitalize the middle class that includes tax incentives to foster the recovery of the manufacturing sector and the creation of jobs. EFE