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  • Effects of unemployment on different ethnic groups

Effects of unemployment on different ethnic groups

Dr Carolina Zuccotti and Professor Jacqueline O’Reilly analysed census data on 57,385 people aged 16-29 in 2001 in England and Wales to study the long-term effects of unemployment on young people of different ethnicity.

Our researchers used data from the ONS Longitudinal Study on 57,385 people in England and Wales, aged 16-29 in 2001 and then followed up in 2011 when the participants were 10 years older, and so aged 26 to 39. The focus was on individuals who arrived as children or grew up in the UK.

Project timeframe

This research commenced in 2014 and ended in 2016.

Project aims

The aims of this research project were to:

  • determine the impact of being out of work on future employment prospects
  • consider factors such as growing up in a poor neighbourhood and having limited education
  • establish the extent to which effects varied for young people from different ethnic minorities.
We observed that young men from ethnic minority backgrounds who were not working or studying in 2001 had similar or even higher probabilities of being in work in 2011 as compared to the white British. The fact that some ethnic minorities were less penalised from previous unemployment or inactivity compared to some of their white British counterparts is in part good news in terms of integration processes. However, significant concerns remain regarding employment probabilities among young white British men, but also among ethnic minority women, who are increasingly left behind.

Dr Carolina Zuccotti

Project findings and impact

The headline findings include:

  • Being out of work can significantly cut the chances of finding a job a decade later, with white men among the hardest hit.
  • Of white British young people who were not in work or in education in 2001, only 59 per cent of men and 50 per cent of women were employed in 2011.
  • In contrast, more than 93 per cent of men and around 85 per cent of women who were studying or working in 2001 had a job in 2011.
  • The effect of being out of work or education in 2001 also reduced young people’s chances of having a professional or managerial job in 2011, with only 23 per cent of white British men and 19 per cent of women achieving this – while the average probability of achieving this position for the entire population under study was more than 40 per cent.
  • When factors such as growing up in a poor neighbourhood and having limited education were excluded, people who were not employed or in education in 2001 were 18 per cent less likely to be employed in 2011 than those who were employed.
  • People from ethnic minorities were affected to a different extent. Men from south Asian ethnic minorities were less affected by previous unemployment or inactivity than white men – of those who were not in work or education in 2001, 78 per cent of Indian ethnicity and 65 per cent of Pakistani and Bangladeshi were employed in 2011, compared with 59 per cent of white British men.
  • When factors such as growing up in a poor neighbourhood and having limited education were excluded, south Asian young men who were not in work or in education in 2001 were between 5 per cent and 10 per cent more likely to be employed in 2011 than their white British counterparts.
  • Women from ethnic minorities in particular, Pakistani and Bangladeshi, had lower employment levels in 2011 as compared to the white British, even after individual and class background characteristics are taken into consideration. While discrimination might be a factor, cultural values might well play a part in this finding.

Findings were presented at the British Sociological Association’s Work, Employment and Society conference which took place at the University of Leeds on 7 September 2016.

Event

Following findings from our EU-funded projects looking at the prospects for youth employment in the UK, we have organised a workshop and discussion event on Friday 28 October 2016 in Room 808, Cockcroft Building, Lewes Road, University of Brighton,
 
Ethnic and gender differences for young people finding work in the UK
Carolina Zuccotti and Jacqueline O’Reilly
 
Policy directions for the future of youth employment
Margherita Bussi & Jacqueline O’Reilly
 
Open table discussion
With young people, service deliverers and policy makers.
 
Refreshments will be available from 3pm. The workshop will run from 4-6pm followed by a drinks reception.
 

Research team

Carolina Zuccotti

Jacqueline O'Reilly

Output

Prospects for Youth Employment in the UK - workshop and discussion, 28 October 2016

British white men 'among hardest hit', research finds, The Telegraph, 7 September 2016

Research findings were presented at the British Sociological Association’s Work, Employment and Society conference which took place at the University of Leeds on 7 September 2016.

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