Unemployment

BAME people face a bigger struggle than their white counterparts to get a job in the first place. Even before the effects of the Covid pandemic, people from ethnic minorities experienced on average almost twice the rate of unemployment of white people (7% compared to 4%). For young, BAME people (aged 16-24), the unemployment rate was 18%, compared with 11% for young, white people.

Black people have the highest unemployment rate of all, at 9%. However, when gender is also taken into account, it is women from a Bangladeshi or Pakistani background who experience the highest rate of joblessness, at 13%.