A new Georgetown University study says Latinos are running faster than, but falling farther behind whites and blacks in educational attainment. They’re stalling in the middle tiers of the higher-education system, according to the study, and, as a result, are caught in the middle-wage tier of the labor market.

Earning college degrees remains a challenge for Latinos: only 21% of Latinos have bachelor’s degrees compared to 32% of blacks and 45% of whites. Latino Education and Economic Progress: Running Faster but Still Behind, the new study from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (Georgetown Center) in Washington, DC, reveals that lagging college degree attainment has led Latinos to become stuck in the middle-wage tiers of the labor market.

“The story of Latino families in America honors an intergenerational striving to achieve full inclusion in our society, and it’s their turn,” says Anthony P. Carnevale, lead author of the report and director of the Georgetown Center, an independent, non-profit research and policy institute.

“With access to the right college and career guidance, Latinos can keep running faster toward a promising future that awaits.”

While Latinos are running faster in the education race, the researchers found they’re falling farther behind whites and blacks in many crucial college outcomes. Since 1992 Latino post-secondary degree attainment has only increased from 35% to 45%, a 10-percentage point increase, compared to a 16-point increase for whites and a 22-point increase for blacks.

Another reality: 65% of Latino students enroll in overcrowded and underfunded community colleges with low graduation rates, while only 15% enroll in one of the 500 most selective colleges that have much higher graduation rates.

Even when Latinos obtain college degrees, they’re less likely to work in college jobs, this new research shows. Latinos comprise 16% of workers, but hold 20% of jobs that require no more than a high school diploma. Latinos hold a mere 10% of jobs that require at least some post-secondary education, and they hold only 9% of jobs which require a bachelor’s degree, and 7% of jobs requiring a graduate degree.

The researchers further found that, in general, Latinos have the lowest earnings compared to whites and blacks. However, when Latinos obtain at least some post-secondary education they have higher earnings than blacks, but are still behind whites.

Perhaps the most notable finding reveals that country of origin and English language ability are important sources of wage disparity between whites and Latinos, but they don’t fully explain the white-Latino earnings gap, says the report.

Ultimately, these unexplained differences are owed to differences in access to informal information networks, formal counseling, and other forms of social capital, as well as lingering discrimination, according to the report.

The good news is that, with the right support, Latinos are poised for a surge in educational and economic success, the report reveals. Latino high school graduation rates have improved the most since the 1990s compared to their white and black peers.

Latino first-time enrollees at two- and four-year colleges and universities have also increased - by almost 250,000 students - while white enrollment has actually decreased. Latinos also have the highest completion rates in certificate programs (60%), compared to 47% for whites and 37% for blacks.

“Latino students often start at a disadvantage - many of their parents haven’t gone to college,” notes Megan L. Fasules, co-author and research economist at the Georgetown Center. “These students may also have difficulty navigating the financial aid process, so it’s imperative that we close the information gap.”

Other key findings include:

• Latina women have higher completion rates compared to Latino men at every level of post-secondary education.

• While Latinos with high SAT/ACT test scores have similar rates of college enrollment as whites, 63% of these Latinos complete a degree or other credential compared to 78% of whites with similar test scores.

• Only 34% of foreign-born Latinos have some form of post-secondary education compared to 61% of native-born Latinos.

• Latinos who speak only English earn $41,000 annually on average, which is lower than whites’ earnings ($50,000), but higher than blacks’ earnings ($38,000).

The full report, Latino Education and Economic Progress: Running Faster but Still Behind, is available online at cew.georgetown.edu/LatinosWorkforce.