Background
Ten years ago ethnic minorities had an employment rate of 57% whereas Great Britain as a whole had an employment rate of 75% – a gap of 18 percentage points.
During the years up to the recession,ethnic minority employment had risen against a Great Britain employment rate that had remained broadly flat over the same period. This had the effect of reducing the gap to just under 12 percentage points.
The DWP research report “A test for racial discrimination in recruitment practice”, published in October 2009, provides evidence that people with ethnic minority names have to apply on average for almost twice as many jobs than applicants with names.
