BAME people in Britain are hardest hit by Covid job losses with 67.4% in employment compared to 79.4% of white workers, research shows
- The share of BAME people in employment fell to 67.4% in April from 72.0%
- That was a bigger drop than a decline to 79.4% from 81.1% for white people
- People from ethnic minorities also face higher health risks from COVID-19
Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people in Britain have been hit harder by job losses during the coronavirus crisis than white people, researchers have found.
The share of BAME people in employment fell to 67.4% in April from 72.0% in February, researchers have said.
That was a bigger drop than a decline to 79.4% from 81.1% for white people, they said, using data from the long-running Understanding Society survey led by the University of Essex.
It came as ministers hired a public relations firm to encourage more members of ethnic minority groups to take the vaccine after a survey found up to 72 per cent are unlikely or very unlikely to have the jab.
People from ethnic minorities also face higher health risks from COVID-19, previously published research has shown. Black and Asian people in England are up to 50% more likely to die after being infected, an official study said last week.
Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people in Britain have been hit harder by job losses during the coronavirus crisis than white people, researchers have found
The report comes as the global protests at the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis have put renewed focus on the wider economic inequalities facing non-white people.
The research, which was first published on June 1, showed that fewer BAME people who reported a decline in hours worked had been put on the government’s coronavirus job retention scheme than non-BAME people in the same situation.
That scheme provides 80% of the wages of employees who are temporarily laid off.
‘The BAME group is very heterogeneous and many questions remain unanswered,’ Paul Fisher, one of the academics who worked on the report, said.
‘Which communities are being hardest hit? Can the different types of jobs done by different workers explain the pattern? These are questions which urgently need answering and further research is needed.’
U.S. data published last week showed joblessness among African Americans and Asians rose even as the overall unemployment rate dropped unexpectedly in May.
The study showed bigger increases of BAME people who were in arrears on their bills after seeing their incomes fall, and they were also more likely to have borrowed money as a way to mitigate their earnings losses.
The research showed that people with less education also suffered a bigger fall in employment than people with more qualifications. But the difference was not as marked as between BAME and non-BAME people.
A new study has found that some BAME groups are unsure about having the Covid vaccine
It came as ministers hired a public relations firm to encourage more members of ethnic minority groups to take the vaccine.
Data from the first wave indicates that minorities are up to twice as likely to die from Covid – yet a survey found up to 72 per cent are unlikely or very unlikely to have the jab.
Now the Department of Health has hired MMC, a specialist agency for diverse communities, to boost vaccine take-up. The company, based in London, has begun contacting ethnic minority communities in a bid to tackle misinformation and vaccine hesitancy.
According to their website they have already worked with Public Health England, the Department of Health and Cancer Research UK.
Patricia Macauley, founder and director, said the company had been brought in to ‘help build confidence around the vaccine’ and ‘give people the facts’. The move comes as experts call on the Government to launch a publicity campaign and prioritise high-risk minority ethnic groups for the vaccine as a poll of 12,000 conducted by the UK Household Longitudinal Study found up to 72 per cent of black people were hesitant about getting inoculated.