A staggering seven in ten (71%) young people from ethnic minority backgrounds have experienced some form of workplace or labour market discrimination.
Almost half (46%) of young people from ethnic minority backgrounds have experienced discrimination when dealing with customers/clients at work.
More than eight out of ten (84%) ethnic minority young people are worried about barriers or challenges to do with their ethnicity or background when it comes to work/employment.
More than half (55%) of young Black people feel that employers underestimate their abilities because of their ethnic background.
When are they most likely to experience discrimination?
Engaging with customers or clients is where most participants had experienced discrimination, particularly for young Black people, and even more so for Black men.
With seven in ten participants experiencing some form of workplace discrimination, the results emphasised a concern for future prospects in the workplace.
Lord Simon Woolley, Non-Executive Director at Youth Futures, comments:
“These alarming findings lay bare the scale of discrimination young Black, Asian and minority ethnic people face, compounded by the pressures of the cost of living crisis.
“The Government must act on the recommendations of the House of Lords Youth Unemployment Committee to create an Education and Workplace Race Equality Strategy to remove the additional barriers these young people face, mandating the regular collection of data and providing every young person facing disadvantage with tailored careers guidance.
“To tackle this issue, we intend to target a further £5 million on innovative place-based partnerships that address the challenges young Black, Asian and minority ethnic people face at a local level.”
Matthew Poole, Director of Grants and Investment, Youth Futures said:
“The research and insight generated by the YEG Ethnic Disparities subgroup inform our investment plans. That’s why we intend to ramp up our flagship Connected Futures programme to join up youth employment support services at a local level.
“Everything we do is guided by robust evidence of what works. We learn from the projects we fund and scale up that learning to drive genuine, long-lasting systemic change.
“Yet more needs to be done at a national level. That’s why we’re calling on the Government to deliver an Opportunity Guarantee and to allocate further dormant assets funding to boost youth employment.”
Isha, Future Voices Group Ambassador, comments:
“Being a British Pakistani Muslim woman I have first-hand experience of the devastation the systematic discrimination prevalent in education and the labour market can have on a young person’s career dreams. Racism is a barrier that no young person should have to overcome. The fact the survey shows that two in five young people from ethnic minority backgrounds experienced discrimination when applying for a job is alarming but unfortunately not surprising to me. More needs to be done to support young people from ethnic minority backgrounds to achieve their dream jobs and feel valued in society.”
Amelia Brand is the Editor for HRreview, and host of the HR in Review podcast series. With a Master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory, her particular interests within HR include employment law, DE&I, and wellbeing within the workplace. Prior to working with HRreview, Amelia was Sub-Editor of a magazine, and Editor of the Environmental Justice Project at University College London, writing and overseeing articles into UCL’s weekly newsletter. Her previous academic work has focused on philosophy, politics and law, with a special focus on how artificial intelligence will feature in the future.
