RACE AT WORK 2015-2017 SURVEY
INSIGHTSBAME Women at work
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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
Race at Work 2015 - 2017 Survey Insights | BAME women at work
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
Race at Work 2015 - 2017 Survey Insights | BAME women at work
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)
Other Ethnic (32,000)
Mixed (20,000)
Black African/Caribbean (54,000)
Pakistani (21,000)
Bangladeshi (13,000)
% unemployed
%
4
Race at Work 2015 - 2017 Survey Insights | BAME women at work
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)
Black African/Caribbean (37,000)
Other Ethnic (37,000)
Mixed (28,000)
Pakistani (21,000)
Chinese (13,000)
Bangladeshi (6,000)
5
Race at Work 2015 - 2017 Survey Insights | BAME women at work
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
Race at Work 2015 - 2017 Survey Insights | BAME women at work
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
White women(n=1,476)
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
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)
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 40-54 (n=578)
BAME women age 40-54 (n=311)
White women age 55+ (n=396)
BAME women age 55+ (n=97)
Directly - another way Directly - heard through acquaintance Through a recruitment agency
7
Race at Work 2015 - 2017 Survey Insights | BAME women at work
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
White women(n=1,476)
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
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)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 25-39 (n=462)
BAME women age 25-39 (n=505)
White women age 40-54 (n=578)
BAME women age 40-54 (n=311)
White women age 55+ (n=396)
BAME women age 55+ (n=97)
Job website Agency Personal networks Newspaper Social media
8
Race at Work 2015 - 2017 Survey Insights | BAME women at work
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