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Addressing unstable employment for millennial ethnic minorities

Inequalities between different ethnic groups remains a critical issue in the UK workforce.

Young people in conversation looking at laptops with white text ‘Equality. For Life.’

The ‘Millennial Generation’ face a series of unique challenges, including the expansion of the ‘gig economy’ resulting in more precarious short-term work or zero-hour contracts

People from minority ethnic groups are overrepresented in precarious employment and this is strongly associated with poorer mental health. In order to examine this further, Dr Morag Henderson collaborated on a project with Georgina Bowyer and Doulgas White from Carnegie UK Trust and Lord Simon Woolley from Operation Black Vote to look at the employment prospects of millennials in the UK and the impact of their employment status on their mental health.

The team looked at data from the Next Steps cohort study, based in IOE’s Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS), which collected data from a cohort of more than 7,000 people born in 1989-90 about many areas of their lives.

Millennials from ethnic minorities are 47% more likely to be on a zero-hours contract

When examining this data, the team found that millennials from ethnic minorities are 47% more likely to be on a zero-hours contract and 4% less likely to have a permanent contract than White workers.

They also found that there are significant links between employment status and poor mental health. Those who work shifts are 7 percentage points more likely to report mental ill health compared to those who are not shift workers. And those who have a zero-hours contract are 6 percentage points more likely to report mental ill health than those without a zero-hours contract.

IOE120 graphic with yellow fingerprint and black text ‘Millennials from ethnic minorities are 47% more likely to be on a zero-hours contract and 4% less likely to have a permanent contract than White workers’.

Crucially, this study highlights the inequalities across different ethnic groups and how their circumstances vary. For example, 25-year-olds from Pakistani, Black African, and Mixed-race backgrounds were more likely to be unemployed than their White peers, but Indian, Bangladeshi and Black Caribbean adults were no more likely to be out of work. Also, Pakistani millennials were more likely to be on a zero-hours contract or be working shifts, and less likely to have a permanent job than their White peers. However, Indian and Black Caribbean workers were no more likely than their White counterparts to be in these types of employment.

More work needs to be done to examine the relationship between work, ethnicity and mental health

Having conducted the research, the team put together a series of recommendations to tackle these employment and health inequalities and work towards a more equal and socially just society. The recommendations included developing the government’s Good Work Plan further to address the disproportionate representation of ethnic minority groups in precarious forms of employment, the ethnic minority pay gap, and the negative mental health impacts of precarious work for young workers from all ethnic groups.

They argued further research and analysis should also examine the relationship between work, ethnicity and mental health and recognise the unique needs and experiences of different ethnic minority groups. Additionally, there should be culturally appropriate mental health campaigns for different ethnic groups to assess whether this could improve access to services.

The team recommends employers should work proactively to identify priorities for tackling race inequality in their organisation and different bodies should work collaboratively to tackle this inequality across the UK labour market.

This study was included in the House of Lords’ Youth Unemployment Committee report on young people’s skills. By conducting this research, IOE highlighted the inequalities in the UK labour market and has worked collaboratively with organisations to identify what can be done to tackle ethnic inequalities in access to stable employment and mental health services.