Minority ethnic workers in UK twice as likely to be unemployed as whites

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jan/08/minority-ethnic-workers-more-often-unemployed

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Some of Britain's most disadvantaged minority ethnic groups are more than twice as likely to be unemployed than their white counterparts, official figures released on Wednesday show.

The Department for Work and Pensions found the unemployment rate for whites aged 16-24 was 19% last September.

The rate was 46% for young Pakistani and Bangladeshi workers and 45% for young black people.

All minority ethnic groups in the study had a higher joblessness rate than whites, especially those under 25.

The rate was 26% for young mixed-race workers, 34% for young Indians and 29% for Chinese under-25s.

The figures also show the situation is worsening and ethnic minorities have missed out on the recent jobs boom as public sector jobs, where ethnic minorities are over-represented, have continued to be squeezed.

In the 12 months to September 2013 the average unemployment rate for young people in all minority ethnic groups jumped from 33% to 37%.

Black and Asian workers are over-represented in "human health and social work" – a category that covers the NHS.

Black workers are heavily represented in white collar administrative jobs in the private and public sectors, according to the DWP data, and these jobs have suffered losses over a longer period of time as organisations have increased their reliance on IT systems.

Across the adult working population, ethnic minority groups suffered a rise in the unemployment rate from 13% to 14% over the previous year.

The rate remained constant between 2012 and 2013 for the UK as a whole, at 8%, and at 7% for white British workers.

John Philpott, director of the Jobs Economist thinktank, said the latest data showed that youth unemployment is disproportionately affecting Britain's ethnic minorities.

"The one glimmer of positive news in these figures is that the relative position of young people from ethnic minorities has not become markedly worse in the period since the start of the recession.

"Full year data suggest that the gap between the average unemployment rate for young people from ethnic minorities and that for young whites increased from 12 percentage points to 13 percentage points between 2007 and 2012.

"The persistence of a large unemployment rate gap between ethnic minority and white youth nonetheless suggests there is a larger structural element to the problem of youth unemployment for ethnic minorities that won't be solved by a stronger economic recovery alone."

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