Career Latino, which is powered by Monster, was formally launched October 30. Financial details of the agreement between Monster and Consorte Media, a San Francisco-based online marketing company that targets Hispanics, were not revealed.

Expanding its reach into the Hispanic market is part of Monster’s strategic vision.

“We see ketchup transitioning into salsa throughout many areas of the country,” says Steve Pemberton, chief diversity officer at Monster. “Consorte is the first of several deals that we’re working on to reach this audience.”

Already, some 1.8 million of Monster’s registered job seekers identify themselves as Hispanic. The company decided it was important to make a formal push into the market due to strong demand from clients.

“Recruiters and hiring managers kept on asking us for help in reaching this audience,” Pemberton notes. “There is a need for Hispanic talent that will only intensify with time.”

He believes other online job boards will follow Monster’s lead, setting off a wave of partnerships with Hispanic media companies that will give them access to the Latino workforce.

“It is highly likely that other job boards will jump into this arena because the demand is very strong among employers,” Pemberton notes.

The push for Hispanic talent is not only being driven by a desire to create a diversified workplace. “Financials are a big part of it too” Pemberton explains. “When employers look at the $1 billion phenomenon of the popular cartoon character Dora the Explorer, they realize the potential that lies in this market.”

The purchasing power of Hispanics is estimated somewhere between $200 billion and $600 billion annually, he notes. Monster found Consorte an attractive partner because the online marketing company owns several Web sites targeting the Hispanic audience.

Meanwhile, Consorte decided to team with Monster because of its strong brand name and extensive expertise in online recruiting, says Alicia Morga, CEO and founder of the company.

“I think it is a great strategic decision for Monster to reach out to the Hispanic community,” says Mark Mehler, principal at CareerXroads, a recruiting consultancy in Kendall Park, New Jersey.

“The numbers will tell how successful these efforts truly are.”

Morga anticipates those results will be positive. She points to Consorte’s track record with one of its existing clients, Best Buy.

According to Morga, the company got a strong response when it used Consorte to advertise help-wanted ads for bilingual speakers with a technical background to staff its troubleshooting division, Geek Squad. She says Consorte was able to provide about 30 leads for qualified candidates each day.

Pemberton says going after Hispanic workers will become increasingly important to employers across all sectors of the economy as baby boomers begin retiring.

“It would be interesting to take a snapshot of what the exiting workforce looks like and compare it to the group that will be replacing those empty spaces,” Pemberton says. “I bet the pictures will look very different.”

—Gina Ruiz