London’s labour market is proving difficult for many older workers, especially for ethnic minorities. But the intersection between their age and their ethnicity is exacerbated by other disadvantages such as gender, low education attainment, disability and low socio-economic status. And there are significant differences between ethnic groups. But taken together these trends highlight the long-standing structural problems in London. Tim Whitaker a Wise Age Trustee looks at some of the evidence and the policy implications.
Thankfully the GLA is analysing the trends and underrepresented groups in London’s labour market, particularly in sectors where there are problems. But we still need better data on older ethnic workers in London.
Ethnic minority groups are more likely to be in precarious work than their white counterparts. Rates of insecure employment are far higher for Black and Pakistani/Bangladeshi groups. In terms of earnings, a higher proportion of employed Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Black Londoners are paid below the London Living Wage compared to other ethnic groups. Adding gender to the mix even within groups shows more disadvantage – for example Pakistani/Bangladeshi women have a significantly reduced employment rate compared to their male counterparts, at 38.8% compared to 77.7%.
Nationally white 50–64-year-olds had half the unemployment rate than people from all other ethnic groups combined (3% and 6%) . In London nearly one in twelve Black Londoners (8.5%) were unemployed in the period April 2021 to March 2022, nearly double the rate for their White counterparts (4.5%). London average for unemployment was 6.1%, the following groups all had a rate significantly higher than the average: Pakistani/Bangladeshi women 11.3% Black women 10.5% and Black men 12.4%
Levels of economic inactivity are marginally lower among older BME people, probably because many BME workers haven’t built up private pension savings and lower pension wealth due to low pay, and higher levels of insecure work. Economically inactive BME people are marginally more likely to have been forced out of the labour market by poor health, and twice as likely to cite caring responsibilities. There are differences between ethnic groups and nationally the highest rate of economic inactivity for over 50s was in the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group (37%) – the lowest was in the Indian and ‘white other’ ethnic groups (20%
Differences are even more pronounced when the effects of gender are added. BME men have substantially lower rates of inactivity than their white counterparts – just one in six BME men aged 50-64 has left the labour market (16 per cent), compared to one in four (25 per cent) white men. Among women this relationship is reversed with one in three white women in this age group economically inactive, compared to almost two in five (38 per cent) BME women. The proportion of economically inactive BME men who were forced out of the labour market by ill health is 8 percentage points higher than for white counterparts, and the proportion unable to work because of caring commitments is 6 percentage points higher. Although the proportion of economically inactive BME and white women in ill health is the same, the proportion of economically inactive older BME women who are unable to work because of caring commitments is twice as high as for economically inactive older white women who are more than twice as likely to be retired.
But as the TUC have shown the real story here with economic inactivity is the growing number of people simply too sick to work. While the number of people below state pension age who are retired has dropped below levels seen in 2019, the number who are out of work because of long-term ill health is nearly 340,000 higher than it was before the pandemic at almost 2.5 million. (CreatingAHealthyLabourMarket_23.pdf_)
This all points to specialist support at a local level for those unemployed and economically inactive older workers from ethnic minorities wanting work. With only one in ten older workers getting DWP employment support then those furthest from the labour market face major disadvantage.
But this requires understanding the different needs and devising the right support. For example, Islington council with London Metropolitan University carried out detailed research on the employment support needs of specific black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) (IslingtonBAMEEmploymentFinalReport1 (2).pdf (businessldn.co.uk). This mapped the main barriers to employment including not just ageism, but racism, the lack of experience and skills, low educational qualifications, language barriers, digital literacy and low confidence and aspirations plus a feeling of being let down by employment support services. Older residents in their 40s, 50s and 60s experienced significant barriers in terms of language and digital literacy in particular, but also having no or low level educational qualifications – a major barrier to accessing even entry-level jobs .
The recommendations from this report are not just targeted employment support but also developing an employment support community outreach strategy centred on areas of need.
Clearly employers have a responsibility. Some good work is underway, but the big question is whether diversity and inclusion policies make a difference on the ground in terms of actual employment rates of ethnic minorities. And how they are treated within the workplace – retention of over 50s needs to be an urgent priority low given job satisfaction was linked to people leaving the workplace. The Henley Business School’s worrying report “The Equity Effect” looked at whether employees from ethnic minorities are being treated fairly and with respect in UK workplaces (The-Equity-Effect-report.pdf (henley.ac.uk). ) This revealed that if you are a woman from an ethnic minority, aged over 45 and working in the public sector, you are among the UK’s most disadvantaged workers. And racism is experienced much more in the public sector than the private sector, despite public sector organisations often having the most strongly worded diversity campaigns.
London’s labour market is proving difficult for many older workers, especially for ethnic minorities. But the intersection between their age and their ethnicity is exacerbated by other disadvantages such as gender, low education attainment, disability and low socio-economic status. And there are significant differences between ethnic groups. But taken together these trends highlight the long-standing structural problems in London. Tim Whitaker a Wise Age Trustee looks at some of the evidence and the policy implications.
Thankfully the GLA is analysing the trends and underrepresented groups in London’s labour market, particularly in sectors where there are problems. But we still need better data on older ethnic workers in London (Date (airdrive-secure.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com))
Ethnic minority groups are more likely to be in precarious work than their white counterparts. Rates of insecure employment are far higher for Black and Pakistani/Bangladeshi groups. In terms of earnings, a higher proportion of employed Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Black Londoners are paid below the London Living Wage compared to other ethnic groups. Adding gender to the mix even within groups shows more disadvantage – for example Pakistani/Bangladeshi women have a significantly reduced employment rate compared to their male counterparts, at 38.8% compared to 77.7%.
Nationally white 50–64-year-olds had half the unemployment rate than people from all other ethnic groups combined (3% and 6%) . In London nearly one in twelve Black Londoners (8.5%) were unemployed in the period April 2021 to March 2022, nearly double the rate for their White counterparts (4.5%). London average for unemployment was 6.1%, the following groups all had a rate significantly higher than the average: Pakistani/Bangladeshi women 11.3% Black women 10.5% and Black men 12.4%
Levels of economic inactivity are marginally lower among older BME people, probably because many BME workers haven’t built up private pension savings and lower pension wealth due to low pay, and higher levels of insecure work. Economically inactive BME people are marginally more likely to have been forced out of the labour market by poor health, and twice as likely to cite caring responsibilities. There are differences between ethnic groups and nationally the highest rate of economic inactivity for over 50s was in the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group (37%) – the lowest was in the Indian and ‘white other’ ethnic groups (20%
Differences are even more pronounced when the effects of gender are added. BME men have substantially lower rates of inactivity than their white counterparts – just one in six BME men aged 50-64 has left the labour market (16 per cent), compared to one in four (25 per cent) white men. Among women this relationship is reversed with one in three white women in this age group economically inactive, compared to almost two in five (38 per cent) BME women. The proportion of economically inactive BME men who were forced out of the labour market by ill health is 8 percentage points higher than for white counterparts, and the proportion unable to work because of caring commitments is 6 percentage points higher. Although the proportion of economically inactive BME and white women in ill health is the same, the proportion of economically inactive older BME women who are unable to work because of caring commitments is twice as high as for economically inactive older white women who are more than twice as likely to be retired.
But as the TUC have shown the real story here with economic inactivity is the growing number of people simply too sick to work. While the number of people below state pension age who are retired has dropped below levels seen in 2019, the number who are out of work because of long-term ill health is nearly 340,000 higher than it was before the pandemic at almost 2.5 million. (CreatingAHealthyLabourMarket_23.pdf_)
This all points to specialist support at a local level for those unemployed and economically inactive older workers from ethnic minorities wanting work. With only one in ten older workers getting DWP employment support then those furthest from the labour market face major disadvantage.
But this requires understanding the different needs and devising the right support. For example, Islington council with London Metropolitan University carried out detailed research on the employment support needs of specific black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) (IslingtonBAMEEmploymentFinalReport1 (2).pdf (businessldn.co.uk). This mapped the main barriers to employment including not just ageism, but racism, the lack of experience and skills, low educational qualifications, language barriers, digital literacy and low confidence and aspirations plus a feeling of being let down by employment support services. Older residents in their 40s, 50s and 60s experienced significant barriers in terms of language and digital literacy in particular, but also having no or low level educational qualifications – a major barrier to accessing even entry-level jobs .
The recommendations from this report are not just targeted employment support but also developing an employment support community outreach strategy centred on areas of need.
Clearly employers have a responsibility. Some good work is underway, but the big question is whether diversity and inclusion policies make a difference on the ground in terms of actual employment rates of ethnic minorities. And how they are treated within the workplace – retention of over 50s needs to be an urgent priority low given job satisfaction was linked to people leaving the workplace. The Henley Business School’s worrying report “The Equity Effect” looked at whether employees from ethnic minorities are being treated fairly and with respect in UK workplaces (The-Equity-Effect-report.pdf (henley.ac.uk). ) This revealed that if you are a woman from an ethnic minority, aged over 45 and working in the public sector, you are among the UK’s most disadvantaged workers. And racism is experienced much more in the public sector than the private sector, despite public sector organisations often having the most strongly worded diversity campaigns.