Young BAME workers set for unemployment crisis as furloughing ends

Black and ethnic minority workers are set for a Covid unemployment crisis as companies in the worst-hit sectors such as hospitality begin major lay-off programmes.

As Frankie & Benny’s owner The Restaurant Group warned staff of heavy job cuts, a wide-ranging research paper presented to MPs highlighted how black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) workers were set to bear the brunt of layoffs being imposed by firms.

Awareness of the impact of Covid on BAME employees’ job prospects has been heightened by the unrest in the US after the death of George Floyd. Some commentators have claimed BAME job losses have stoked the tensions.

Lord Woolley, of Operation Black Vote and the London Mayor’s London Recovery Project, said: “It is one of the biggest fears I have right now. Furlough schemes have been brilliant but what happens when they end? When we have the worst recession for 300 years, who is going to get hit hardest? BAME people, especially in London.”

The report showed that even as the UK headed into the Covid crisis, unemployment was higher, and rising, among BAME groups than whites. The rate between January and March was 6.3% compared with 3.6% for the white community and up from 5.8% in the previous quarter. That is now likely to surge disproportionately for BAME workers as companies brace for the end of the Government’s furlough schemes with big layoffs. This is because, as the report highlighted, BAME workers make up a disproportionately large number of staff in locked-down industries such as hotels and restaurants. Sectors that have been shut have 15% BAME workers – 3% higher than in other sectors.

Calling for a Government strategy, Lord Woolley said: “If we leave these people, particularly youngsters, behind, there are gang members who will mop them up. People are shaking their heads about what is going on in the US, but we are not a million miles away. This is a crossroads and it is for us to choose which way we go.”

The figures were particularly concerning among younger people. Even before Covid, 24% of those between 16 and 24 of Bangladeshi or Pakistani origin were unemployed, and 21% of black people.

The report highlighted how the last recession hit BAME jobs hardest, with the jobless rate peaking at 7.8% among white people and 14.7% for BAME.

The rate for those from BAME backgrounds has nearly halved since.

Unemployment rates for people from an Indian or Chinese origin was broadly the same as for white people, while black, Bangladeshi or Pakistani backgrounds were highest.

The report, published as data found BAME people were more likely to die from Covid, highlighted that 14% of the key worker workforce — from health and social care to the food and grocery industries — were from BAME origins. It was collated from various sources including the Office for National Statistics and the Institute for Fiscal Studies.