AE AT W E TS … · 11 7 3 Indian (42,000) Black African/Caribbean (37,000) Other Ethnic (37,000)...

RACE AT WORK 2015-2017 SURVEY

INSIGHTSBAME Women at work

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This document was published in 2017, hence it uses our old branding. Despite its age, the document contains relevant and useful information. However, some specific links, case studies and statistics may be out of date.

Race at Work 2015 - 2017 Survey Insights

BAME women at work

1

Race at Work 2015 - 2017 Survey Insights | BAME women at work

BAME women in the UK

There are over 20.6 million

women in the UK's working age

population of which 2.9 million

(14%) are from a Black, Asian

and Minority Ethnic (BAME)

background. Amongst ethnic

minority women, those from the

Other Ethnic group alongside

black women have significant

representation - being 28% and

25% respectively, although

collectively, the broader Asian

group that includes Indian/

Figure 1: Female working age population by ethnicity, UK (Jan - Dec 2016)

Source: Annual Population Survey Jan-Dec 2016

Pakistani and Bangladeshi women is by far the largest group representing 38% of all BAME women. See Figure 1.

There is a significant difference in the employment rates between white women (72.6%) compared to BAME women (55.8%). Whilst Indian,

mixed race and black women experience employment rates of 65.8%, 64.4% and 63.6% respectively, it is in total stark contrast to Bangladeshi

and Pakistani women whose employment rates are 30% and 39.2% respectively. See Figure 2.

100

86

14

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

To

tal (2

0,6

42,3

00)

Wh

ite (1

7,6

81

,000

)

BA

ME

(2,9

61

,30

0)

28

2519

19

9Other Ethnic (821,100)

Black (740,000)

Pakistani/Bangladeshi(560,400)

Indian (546,800

Mixed (276,400)

%

%

2


Figure 2: Female employment rates by ethnicity, UK (Q1 2017)

Source: Labour Force Survey Jan -Mar 2017. Employed women aged 16 - 64 as a % of all women aged 16 - 64. Total includes people who did not state their ethnicity. The total does not therefore equal the sum of the 'white' and 'BAME' series. BAME includes all people stating their ethnicity as non-white.

Turning to unemployment, since records began in

1991, there has always been a significant gap

between the unemployment rates of white women and

BAME women. In 2007 there was a seven-

percentage point difference. A decade later in Q4

2016 we find an improvement, but still an underlying

5.9 percentage point difference in the unemployment

rates. See Figure 3. Data from the first quarter of

Figure 3: Female unemployment rates by ethnicity, UK, 2007 - 2016

Source: Labour Force Survey 2007 - 2016

70.172.6

55.8

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Tota

l(1

4,4

94

,000

)

White

(12,7

98

,000

)

BA

ME

(1,6

89,0

00)

30

39.2

51.8

52.1

63.6

64.4

65.8

0 50 100

Bangladeshi (50,000)

Pakistani (147,000)

Chinese (82,000)

Other Ethnic (379,000)

Black African/Caribbean (479,000)

Mixed (203,000)

Indian (349,000)

% employed

4.5 4.1 5.6 6.1 6.3 6.8 6.4 5.5 4.8 4.3

11.6 1111 12.6 13.3 14.7 14.5 13.9

9.2 10.2

0

5

10

15

20

20

07

20

08

20

09

20

10

20

11

20

12

20

13

20

14

20

15

20

16

White unemployment rates BAME unemployment rates

%

%

3


2017 shows the unemployment rate for BAME women as 9.1% which is almost two and half times the rate of white women (3.7%). See Figure

4. For Bangladeshi women unemployment rates are far more extreme, with 21.2% of Bangladeshi women more likely to be unemployed.

Pakistani women also experience very high unemployment rates at 12.5%.

Figure 4: Female unemployment rates in the UK, by ethnicity (Q1 2017)

The number of women who are

self-employed has continued to

increase. At the start of 2017

there were 1.5 million self-

employed women of which 1.3

million (88%), were white women

and the remaining 12% were

BAME women. The number of

BAME women in self-employment

has increased rapidly over the last

year alone. In the first quarter of

2016 there were 141,000 self-

employed BAME women. At Q1

Source: Labour Force Survey Oct - Dec 2016. Notes: Total includes people who did not state their ethnicity therefore total does not equal the sum of the 'white' and 'BAME' series.

2017 their numbers had risen to 185,000. Figure 5 shows that women from the Indian, Black African/Caribbean and Other Ethnic group have the

highest representation amongst BAME self-employed women and Bangladeshi women the smallest representation. We find that most of the self-

employed women are in professional and managerial occupations1, 17% and 19% respectively. The highest proportion of women were in

associate professional and technical occupations where over a fifth (22%) were deployed. A high proportion (17%), were also in caring, leisure

1 LFS Occupation: Women Jan-Mar 2017

4.33.7

9.1

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Total (6

74

,00

0)

Wh

ite (5

02

,00

0)

BA

ME (1

69

,00

0)

6

7.1

7.8

9

10

12.5

21.2

0 20 40

Indian (23,000)

Chinese (6,000)


Mixed (20,000)


Pakistani (21,000)

Bangladeshi (13,000)

% unemployed

%

4


and other services occupations. The high volume of self-employed

BAME women requires further scrutiny to better understand if this is

because of the difficulties gaining mainstream employment from

existing employers with the flexibility that may be required. The

number of women that are working part-time is also rising. At the end

of 2016, 41% of women in employment were working part-time. At

the start of 2017 (Q1) this had risen to 42%. 9.5% of these women

stated they could not find a full-time job whilst 33% of female part-

Figure 5: Self-employment amongst all BAME women aged 16+ in the UK

time workers said they did not want a full-time job2 The average

actual weekly hours of work for female part-time workers in their main

job was 16.2 hours as of February 2017, which was slightly less than

in January 2017 and December 2016 when it was 16.3 hours.

Women and work

Business in the Community's race equality campaign conducted a

survey in collaboration with YouGov to find out, amongst others

concerns, how BAME women and white women felt about work.

24,457 UK workers took part in the survey that took place between

28 July and 14 September 2015. 6,076 of the responses were from

the YouGov statistically weighted panel of which 1,496 were BAME

women and 1,478 were white women. The survey sought to find out

what helps women most when trying to find employment, how women

applied for their current role and how they would search for the next

job. The percentages shown in the following graphs are for 'Net

Agree' or 'Net Disagree'.

Source: LFS Q4 2016

2 LFS Oct - Dec 2016 and Jan-Mar 2017 - Self employed by ethnicity: women

23

20

20

15

11

7 3

Indian (42,000)



Mixed (28,000)

Pakistani (21,000)

Chinese (13,000)

Bangladeshi (6,000)

5


Looking for work

The survey revealed that

'previous work experience'

was the number one factor

for all women, that helped

the most when they were

trying to get a job.

However, there were

significant differences in

the levels of importance

amongst ethnic minority

women with 85% of Black

Caribbean women rating it

the highest, the same as

white women, compared to

just 55% of

Figure 6: '"What do you believe helps you MOST when trying to get at job?

Pakistani/Bangladeshi women. A positive attitude was ranked second for all ethnicities, see Figure 6. The survey also asked female workers to

rate apprenticeships/internships, career advisors/mentors and activities outside work as enablers for finding a job. All women gave these options

less than 10% relevance so the data has not been included in this graph. Another question explored how women applied for their current position -

See Figure 7. The most popular route for all women was directly, but it was interesting to note the differences in the preferred channels between

white and ethnic minority women. 20% of BAME women overall, compared to just 10% of white women would use a recruitment agency. We welcome

the recommendation in the McGregor-Smith Review - Race in the Workplace (2017), which urges employers to reject non-diverse short lists, which

must surely be applied to recruitment agencies.

85 80

4033

1521

2320

1310

White women(n=1,476)

BAME women(n=1,496)

85

80

71

66

55

61

77

40

33

29

29

29

28

29

15

21

15

21

12

29

16

23

20

21

17

16

16

16

13

10

21

11

24

11

13

Black Caribbean (n=176)

Black African (n=164)

Other Asian (n=110)

Chinese (n=171)

Pakistani/Bangladeshi (n=128)

Indian (n=267)

Mixed race (n=386)

Previous Work Experience

Positive Attitude

Technical Skills

Good exam results/qualifications

Luck

6


Figure 7: "How did you apply for your current position?"

Figure 8 "How did you apply for your current position?" (by age and ethnicity)

It is also worth noting the importance of

personal networks. The data shows

evidence that white women use the

acquaintance network significantly more

than BAME women, 23% and 19%

respectively. However, Indian and Black

African women were equally as likely as

white women to have heard directly through

an acquaintance. Figure 8 shows that these

differences apply in all age groups.

43 38

2319

1020


BAME women(n=1,496)

39

33

44

36

40

38

40

13

23

20

18

18

23

19

24

20

22

16

33

23

20



Other Asian (n=110)

Chinese (n=171)


Indian (n=267)

Mixed race (n=386)

Directly - another way Directly - heard through aquaintance Through a recruitment agency

42

41

44

33

41

48

24

17

23

18

22

16

13

21

10

19

7

9

White women age 25-39 (n=462)

BAME women age 25-39 (n=505)



White women age 55+ (n=396)

BAME women age 55+ (n=97)

Directly - another way Directly - heard through acquaintance Through a recruitment agency

7


Moving on up

In terms of how women would search

for their next job, it was interesting to

observe that BAME women would

significantly increase their use of

recruitment agencies. A trend that

Figure 9: "How would you search for your next job?"

Figure 10: "How would you search for your next job?" (by age and ethnicity)

was identified in Business in the Community's 'Race and recruitment:

exposing the barriers‘ report (2012), alongside evidence from

Business in the Community’s Race at Work research (2015), which

indicated that BAME workers are over qualified for many of the jobs

they hold.

To learn more about BAME women at work see 'BAME women and

their experiences of career progression', 'BAME women and

enterprise',' Race to progress: breaking down the barriers'. Also visit

http://race.bitc.org.uk/ to view the campaign's extensive store of

reports, research, toolkits, case studies and infographics on race in

the workplace.

69 73

28 4227

3436312329


BAME women(n=1,496) 74

77

67

73

72

70

74

52

51

35

39

30

42

39

31

41

32

31

25

31

38

45

29

27

28

18

29

30

26

40

28

31

19

26

33



Other Asian (n=110)

Chinese (n=171)


Indian (n=267)

Mixed race (n=386)Job website

Agency

Personalnetworks

Newspaper

Socialmedia

78

79

74

75

51

39

34

41

31

45

19

25

33

34

26

35

21

28

31

23

39

40

37

32

29

30

22

28

14

18





White women age 55+ (n=396)

BAME women age 55+ (n=97)

Job website Agency Personal networks Newspaper Social media

http://race.bitc.org.uk/all-resources/research-articles/race-and-recruitment-exposing-barriers-recruitment-industry

http://race.bitc.org.uk/all-resources/research-articles/race-and-recruitment-exposing-barriers-recruitment-industry

http://race.bitc.org.uk/all-resources/factsheets/race-work-bame-women-and-their-experiences-career-progression

http://race.bitc.org.uk/all-resources/factsheets/race-work-bame-women-and-their-experiences-career-progression

http://race.bitc.org.uk/all-resources/research-articles/bame-women-and-enterprise

http://race.bitc.org.uk/all-resources/research-articles/bame-women-and-enterprise

http://race.bitc.org.uk/all-resources/research-articles/race-progress

http://race.bitc.org.uk/

8


What can employers do?

✓ Use your workforce data to benchmark current levels of BAME

women within your workplace.

✓ Set targets that reflect the gender and race diversity of your

talent pool for recruitment and progression, using Census 2011

ethnic categories. (Recommendations 2 and 11 of The

McGregor-Smith Review reinforce the necessity for publishing

data and rejecting non-diverse lists).

✓ Wherever possible, include both male and female BAME

interviewers on your selection panels.

✓ Embed ethnicity into your gender initiatives which focus on

increasing the representation of BAME women in the

workplace, and breaking down occupational segregation.

✓ Ensure gender pay gap monitoring includes a scrutiny of pay

by gender and race as highlighted in recommendation 2 of The

McGregor-Smith Review.

✓ Ensure that flexible work options are available for jobs at all

levels as highlighted in the recent EHRC ethnicity pay gap

report.

Appendix

YouGov data - sample breakdown by ethnicity

Ethnic group YouGov

panel

Female

Weighted

figures

N=

Net: White 1,478

Net: Black African 164

Net: Black Caribbean 176

Net: Chinese 171

Net: Indian 267

Net: Mixed race 386

Net; Pakistani/Bangladeshi 128

Net: Other Asian 110

Net: Other Black 24

Net: Other Ethnic 71

Compiled by Gloria Wyse, Business in the Community Race Equality Campaign, June 2017

AE AT W E TS … · 11 7 3 Indian (42,000) Black African/Caribbean (37,000) Other Ethnic (37,000)...

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