Governments failed to help jobless ethnic minorities

New figures from the 2011 Census show successive Government policies have had little impact on the high levels of joblessness among some ethnic minority groups.

The grim picture is revealed by a team at The University of Manchester based at the Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE).

According to their Joseph Rowntree Foundation funded analysis of people aged 25 to 49, White ethnic groups – with the exception of the Gypsy or Irish Traveller group – are significantly advantaged in the labour market when compared with other ethnic groups.

Only Indian men and Black Caribbean women had similar rates of participation in the labour market to the White ethnic groups.

And, of those in the labour force, Pakistani men had unemployment rates that were one and a half times the figure for White British men and Black Caribbean men an unemployment rate that was almost three times as high.

Pakistani women were more than three times as likely to be unemployed than White British women, and Black Caribbean women were more than twice as likely.

But it was the Gypsy or Irish Traveller group who were the most disadvantaged: a huge 16% of men and 19% of women were unemployed: both five times the equivalent White British rate.

The project is led by Professor James Nazroo and Dharmi Kapadia, both based at CoDE.

Professor Nazroo said: "Ethnic minority groups have a history of lower employment and higher unemployment rates than the White majority.

"Over the past decade The Department of Work and Pensions has rolled out many initiatives to address these inequalities.

"But our analysis of the 2011 Census shows the success of these initiatives has been limited, failing to make any serious impact on employment rates."

Miss Kapadia said: "There are many reasons for joblessness. These include discrimination in the education and employment sectors and regional variations in job markets. Other explanations include the decline of certain industries leading to variations in the fit between skills and job opportunities across ethnic groups.

"However, for the Arab group it is clear that lower economic activity rates partly reflect the high rates of participation in full-time education: 18% for Arab men - 13 times the national average - and 14% for Arab women - 8 times the national average.

"And for the White Gypsy or Irish Traveller group, there were high levels of sickness or disability: 14.5% for men in this age group and 13.5% for women, both more than three times the national average.