Ethnic minorities in the Labour Market
Population
- Almost one in eight working age people in Great Britain are of an ethnic minority background.
Age
- 21% of the working age ethnic minority population are under 25 years old, compared with 19% per cent for white people.
Geography
- Almost two thirds of all working age ethnic minorities are concentrated in London, the West Midlands and the South East, with 44% concentrated in London alone.
Employment
- Only 61% of ethnic minorities are employed, compared with 73% of the general population
- Bangladeshi and Pakistani women have the lowest employment rates of all groups, with just 30% being employed
- About a quarter of employed ethnic minorities work in the “Distribution or Hotel and Restaurants” industry sector, compared with under a fifth of employed white people.
ILO Unemployment
- Ethnic minorities have an unemployment rate of 13%, compared with only 8% for the general population
- Indian people have the lowest unemployment rate of all ethnic minority groups at 8%
- Pakistani/Bangladeshi women (19%) and men (17%) are the ethnic groups with the greatest unemployment rates.
Employment Gap
- The employment gap between ethnic minorities and the general population stands at 12 percentage points.
Economic Inactivity
- The economically inactive group refers to people who are not involved in the labour market, and includes those who are working age retired, those studying, looking after the family or home and those people who are long term sick or disabled
- 30% of people from an ethnic minority background are economically inactive, compared with only 21% of people for the general population
- Two thirds of all Bangladeshi women are economically inactive, compared with only a quarter of white women
- Over half of the Bangladeshis and Pakistanis who are outside of the labour force are taking care of the family or home.
Source: Labour Force Survey, fourth quarter 2010.