A recent report by Carnegie UK Trust, the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies and Operation Black Vote has highlighted that millennials from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds are at a greater risk of being in unstable employment than their white peers.
The Race Inequality in the Workforce report launched on Monday 2nd March notes that BAME youth are 47% more likely to be on zero-hours contracts and have a 10% greater chance of having a second job. The same report also states that these individuals are also 5% more likely to be doing shift work and are 4% less likely to have a permanent contract than white workers. It also observes that they suffer from mental health issues and in some cases even depression.
The report highlighted that Indian and white workers (89%) were the most likely to be in a stable role, followed by mixed-race (87%), black Caribbean (86%), Bangladeshi (85%), Pakistani (84%), black African (81%) and other ethnicities (80%).
Now, it has has urged the government to improve access to good work cultures, and called for employers to carry out internal audits of race disparity. An urgent priority is developing guidance for mental health services on how to improve access for ethnic minority groups, it said.
It drew on research from more than 7,700 people in England, born in 1989-90 and who are being followed by a study called Next Steps. Researchers compared the employment status of 25-year-olds from different ethnic backgrounds and also examined the mental health of people in different types of employment.
Findings showed black African 25-year-olds had lower odds of being in a permanent role – and are more likely to be doing shift work – than white workers of the same age; but mixed-race, Indian and black Caribbean millennials had similar chances of being in these types of jobs.
Research also showed millennials from BAME backgrounds were 58% more likely to be unemployed than white peers.
