Study highlights ethnic job probabilities

THE UK's ethnic minorities are better educated than their white peers but are less likely to be in jobs according to a new study published in the journal Oxford Economic Papers.

By The Newsroom

Published 2nd Mar 2010, 22:31 BST

Updated 2nd Mar 2010, 22:32 BST

The research shows that Pakistani and Bangladeshi women born in the UK have employment chances that are 47 per cent less than those of their native UK-born white peers.

However this difference is smaller than that of their foreign-born parents: In the early 1980s, Pakistani and Bangladeshi women were up to 60 per cent less likely to be in work than white native-born women.

The report – by the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration at University College London – provides a detailed analysis based on the British Labour Force Survey, a large-scale household study carried out by the Office for National Statistics between 1979 and 2005.

The researchers used the data to evaluate the different employment potential for white, Indian, Pakistani, black Caribbean, black African, Bangladeshi and Chinese ethnicities.

Office for National Statistics Caribbean