Covid-19 job losses disproportionately hit ethnic minorities

People from ethnic minorities in the UK have been hit disproportionately by job losses and reduced hours during the Covid-19 crisis.

According to campaigner Hope Not Hate, which drew on a three polls and data from outside sources such as Public Health England (PHE) for its newly published research, BAME people were significantly more likely (13%) to report having had their hours reduced compared with those from a nationally representative sample (9%). They are also nearly twice as likely to report having lost their job (7% compared with 4% nationally from May and 3% from June).

More BAME respondents had struggled to pay their rent (9% compared with 5% national average) and had fallen into debt (also 9%-5%) than the UK average.

One diversity expert commenting on the report predicted that BAME people would be disproportionately hit by redundancies, too, as unconscious bias crept into decision-making.

Read the full article on Personnel Today.