More Hispanic moms putting careers on hold: Despite the financial strain, more women, especially Hispanics, are quitting their jobs for a few years to raise children, according to government data.

Byline: Cindy Krischer Goodman

Dec. 20--When defense lawyer Annette Gomez Suarez became pregnant, she left her job to devote more time to diapers and play groups.

Three years later, Suarez, 38, has a toddler and an infant and is pondering a return to the workforce. "I would like to do something part time and work for someone else." Bureau of Labor statistics show that more new mothers at all income levels are taking job breaks for the first few years of their children's lives. The group taking these breaks in the greatest numbers is Hispanic mothers of infants, a trend that until now has received little attention. Nationally, only 34 percent of Hispanic mothers with infants are working, compared with 53 percent of all married mothers of infants. The study's findings have big implications in South Florida. In Miami-Dade County, about 60 percent of new mothers are Hispanic; in Broward County, it's about 30 percent. "In the Hispanic culture, the value of family is huge and the desire to be a hands-on parent is strong," said Sylvia Hewlett, president of the Center for Work-Life Policy. A FAST-GROWING GROUP

Few groups spark as much national interest as the Hispanic population, which is growing faster than other ethnicities. Culture plays a role in new mothers' decisions to leave the labor force. So does economics. And now, researchers are looking at the other factors that influence work and family patterns. Hispanic women are having more children and having them younger, fertility studies by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show. In addition, incomes for Hispanic women are lower than that of other groups. Now, researchers are looking at when the generation of women immigrated to the United States, their country of origin and their socioeconomic group, and how fertility and labor-force participation are affected. When married Hispanic mothers leave the workforce -- nationally and locally -- they do so mostly for the first year of their child's life. By the time their youngest child is 10, the percentage of Hispanic mothers that participate in the labor force doubles. The increase is less dramatic in the overall population, Census figures show. "This is particularly true for college-educated Hispanics," notes Maria Aysa-Lastra, a sociologist and professor at Florida International University. "They want to stay home with newborns because research has proven that first year of life is important, and daily presence of Mom has an impact on a child's performance." Lourdes Castillo, 39, currently ranks among the stay-at-home mothers in ...