Ethnic minorities in the Labour Market
Population
- Almost one in eight working age people in Great Britain are of an
ethnic minority background.
Age
- 24% of the working age ethnic minority population are under 25 years
old, compared with 19% per cent for whites.
Geography
- Over two thirds of all working age ethnic minorities are concentrated
in London, West Midlands Metropolitan, East Midlands, West Yorkshire and
Greater Manchester, with 43% concentrated in London alone.
Employment
- Only 59% of ethnic minorities are employed, compared with 73% of the general popuulation
- Bangladeshi women have the lowest employment rate of all groups, with just 28% being employed
- About a quarter of ethnic minorities are employed in the distribution or hotel and restaurants
industry sectors compared with under a fifth of white people.
Unemployment
- 13% of ethnic minority people are unemployed (ILO unemployment), compared with only 8%
of the general population
- Other Asian unemployment is the lowest of all ethnic minority groups at 9%
- Pakistani and Black African women (both 21%) and Black Carribean males (22%) are the
groups most likely to be unemployed.
Employment Gap
- The employment gap between people from ethnic minority communities and the general population
stands at 13.8 percentage points.
Economic Inactivity
- The economically inactive group 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
- 32% 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
- 76% of Chinese people who are outside of the labour force are students
- Over half of the Bangladeshis who are outside of the labour force are taking care of the family
or home.
Source: Labour Force Survey, second quarter 2009.
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