'Bleak' prospects for minority employment gap
Friday, 1 February 2008 12:01 AM
The employment gap between ethnic minorities and the rest of the UK population could take 30 years to close, a National Audit Office (NAO) report warns.
At present the UK's overall employment rate is 74 per cent but is only 60 per cent for the ethnic minority population. The gap has only closed by 1.3 per cent since 1987.
Although the government is meeting its targets on the issue the NAO voices concern about recent changes to its provision for encouraging employment among ethnic minorities.
Jobcentre Plus has stopped outreach work for those not actively seeking work, a move which the report says risks losing the skills of voluntary organisations.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is instead concentrating on disadvantaged groups and deprived areas more generally.
"While this provides opportunities to help those most disadvantaged, it carries the risk that some ethnic minorities may not receive the help they need to get a job," NAO chief Sir John Bourn said.
"Unless the department is prepared to do more to reach out to the ethnic minority communities, prospects for increasing their employment rate remain bleak."
The NAO judges overall progress in reducing the progress gap in recent years as having been "modest".
It says a lack of better progress is restricting the government's effort to reduce child poverty levels.
Fifty-six per cent of the Pakistani and Bangladeshi population live in low-income households compared to 19 per cent of the white population, it notes.
Responding to the report, employment minister Stephen Timms said the government had made "steady progress" over the last ten years.
He said the new working neighbourhood fund would provide £1.5 billion tackling worklessness in Britain's most deprived neighbourhoods.
"Rather than providing a one-size-fits-all solution, local communities will have the freedom to decide how to use this money to tackle the specific problems facing their area," Mr Timms added.
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