Employment

Published 21 September 2018

Last updated 14 May 2019 - see all updates

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Contents

1. Main facts and figures

• in 2017, the total working age population (people aged 16 to 64 years) in England, Wales and Scotland was just under 40 million – of those, just over 34 million people were White, and nearly 6 million people were from all other ethnic groups combined
• between 2004 and 2017, the employment rate went up in all ethnic groups; 2017 saw the highest rate of employment, with 75% of the working age population (people aged 16 to 64) employed overall – around 29.9 million people
• in 2017, the largest rates of employment were found in the White British and Other White ethnic groups, at 76% and 81% respectively
• 77% of White people of working age were employed in 2017, compared with 65% of people from all other ethnic groups combined – for both groups, these are the highest rates since 2004, and represent an increase of 1 percentage point since 2016
• the difference in the employment rate for the White ethnic group and the rate for ethnic minority groups (excluding White ethnic minorities) has decreased from 16 percentage points in 2004 to 12 percentage points in 2017 – download the data to see these figures in detail
• the highest employment rates for each ethnic group were in the South (mainly in the South East) and East of England, and the lowest employment rates were generally seen in the North (North East, North West, and Yorkshire and the Humber)

Things you need to know

The Annual Population Survey (APS) is a ‘sample survey’. It collects information from a random sample of the population to make generalisations (reach 'findings') about the total population.

The commentary for this data includes only reliable, or ‘statistically significant’, findings. Findings are statistically significant when we can be confident that they can be repeated, and are reflective of the total population rather than just the survey sample. Specifically, the statistical tests used mean we can be confident that if we carried out the same survey on different random samples of the population, 19 times out of 20 we would get similar findings.

As with all surveys, the estimates from the APS are subject to a degree of uncertainty as they are based on a sample of the population. The degree of uncertainty is greater when the number of respondents is small, so it will be highest for ethnic minority groups.

Results taken from a sample which has a low number of responses are more likely to be affected by statistical variation, so observed changes might not reflect real differences. As such, caution is needed when interpreting short-term trends in the data, especially for sub groups (for example, a specific ethnic group, age group and gender).

When looking at data for ‘All’ groups, any values based on fewer than 30 responses have been withheld. When further breaking down the data by individual ethnic groups, any values based on fewer than 100 responses have been withheld. This is to protect respondents’ confidentiality or because the numbers involved are too small to draw any reliable conclusions.

Data is sourced from the APS to get more detailed information such as employment by local authority area. Higher-level figures may differ slightly from reports published by the Department for Work and Pensions and the Office for National Statistics.

Changes were made to the APS ethnicity questions in 2011, to make them more consistent with ethnicity questions in the national Census and Scottish Census. As a result, there may be some inconsistencies between estimates from before and after 2011, and data on employment rates for individual ethnic groups in 2011 is not available.

Download the data for additional estimates for the broad White and Other ethnic groups at the lower local authority level, and estimates for the Other ethnic group analysed by age, gender and over time.

What the data measures

This data measures the rate of employment for different ethnic groups in England, Wales and Scotland. Data is also broken down by gender, age group and area.

This employment rate is calculated as the number of people in employment as a percentage of the total working age population (people aged 16 to 64 years).

A person of working age is counted as employed if they either:

• are in paid work, as an employee or self-employed
• have a job that they are temporarily away from, for example on holiday
• are on a government-supported training or employment programme
• are doing unpaid family work, for example working in a family business

The figures come from the Annual Population Survey, which is a general household survey covering the UK. It uses data from the Labour Force Survey as well as other local data.

The ethnic categories used in this data

Data is shown for the following ethnic groups:

Asian:

• Indian
• Pakistani or Bangladeshi
• Any other Asian ethnicity (including Chinese)

Black

Mixed/multiple ethnicities

White:

• White British
• White other

Any other ethnic group

Data broken down by local authority is shown in the download files. For this data, the number of people surveyed (the ‘sample size’) was too small to draw any firm conclusions about specific ethnic categories, so the data is broken down into the following 2 categories:

• White – White ethnic groups (including White British and White ethnic minorities)
• Other – all other ethnic minorities

People whose ethnicity is 'Unknown' (because their ethnicity was not recorded or they chose not to state their ethnicity) are counted when calculating the total number of people in employment (shown as the ‘All’ group in the data).

2. By ethnicity

• Location: England, Wales and Scotland
• Time period: 2017
• Source: Annual Population Survey

Percentage and number of people aged 16 to 64 years in employment within each ethnic group

Ethnicity	%	Employed people
All	75	29,943,000
Asian	64	2,029,000
Indian	74	842,000
Pakistani and Bangladeshi	55	658,000
Asian other including Chinese	64	528,000
Black	67	865,000
Mixed	67	363,000
White	77	26,181,000
White British	76	23,645,000
White other	81	2,536,000
Other	62	486,000

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Employment By ethnicity Summary

This data shows that:

• overall, in 2017, 75% of the working age population of England, Scotland and Wales (people aged 16 to 64 years) were in employment
• in 2017, the Other White ethnic group had the highest employment rate out of all ethnic groups (81%), and the Pakistani/Bangladeshi group had the lowest (55%)
• every ethnic minority group except the Other White group had a lower employment rate than the White British group (whose rate was 76%); the Indian ethnic group was the closest, at 74%, followed by the Mixed ethnic group, at 67%

3. By ethnicity (2 ethnic groups)

• Location: England, Wales and Scotland
• Time period: 2017
• Source: Annual Population Survey

Percentage of people aged 16 to 64 years who were in employment within the White ethnic group and all other ethnic groups combined (‘Other’)

Ethnicity	%	Employed people
All	75	29,943,000
White	77	26,181,000
Other than White	65	3,743,000

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Employment By ethnicity (2 ethnic groups) Summary

This data shows that:

• in 2017, the rate of employment was 77% for the White group and 65% for people from all other ethnic groups combined (shown here as ‘Other’)
• the difference between the employment rate for the whole working age population and the rate for ethnic minorities (excluding White ethnic minorities) was 10 percentage points in 2017

4. By ethnicity over time

• Location: England, Wales and Scotland
• Time period: 2004 to 2017
• Source: Annual Population Survey

Percentage and number of people aged 16 to 64 years in employment within each ethnic group over time

Ethnicity	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
All	73	73	73	73	72	71	70	70	71	71	72	74	74	75
Asian	57	57	58	58	59	59	59	N/A*	59	59	62	63	63	64
Indian	68	69	69	69	69	68	70	N/A*	69	69	71	71	73	74
Pakistani and Bangladeshi	44	44	45	45	46	47	46	N/A*	48	49	52	53	54	55
Asian other including Chinese	58	60	60	61	64	63	59	N/A*	60	59	62	64	63	64
Black	60	61	62	63	61	58	60	N/A*	60	61	62	65	67	67
Mixed	62	62	65	63	60	60	61	N/A*	60	62	63	65	64	67
White	74	74	74	74	74	72	72	N/A*	72	73	74	75	76	77
White British	74	74	74	74	74	72	72	N/A*	72	73	74	75	75	76
White other	71	73	74	75	75	74	74	N/A*	75	76	77	79	80	81
Other	55	57	55	58	58	56	56	N/A*	56	57	57	59	61	62

^* Not applicable

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Employment By ethnicity over time Summary

This data shows that:

• the employment rates for all ethnic groups were higher in 2017 than in 2004; however, sample sizes are small for the Mixed, Other Asian and Other ethnic groups, so any generalisations based on these results are unreliable
• between 2004 and 2017, the Pakistani/Bangladeshi ethnic group had the biggest increase in the employment rate, at 11 percentage points (from 44% to 55%), and the White British group had the smallest increase, at 2 percentage points (from 74% to 76%)
• the rate of employment was higher in 2017 than in 2016 for all ethnic groups except the Black group (where the rate stayed the same); however, sample sizes for ethnic minority groups are small, so any generalisations based on these results are unreliable

5. By ethnicity and gender

• Location: England, Wales and Scotland
• Time period: 2017
• Source: Annual Population Survey

Percentage and number of people aged 16 to 64 years in employment within each ethnic group, by gender

	All		Men		Women
Ethnicity	All %	All Employed people	Men %	Men Employed people	Women %	Women Employed people
All	75	29,943,000	80	15,818,000	70	14,125,000
Asian	64	2,029,000	75	1,181,000	53	848,000
Indian	74	842,000	82	471,000	66	371,000
Pakistani and Bangladeshi	55	658,000	71	436,000	38	223,000
Asian other including Chinese	64	528,000	73	274,000	57	254,000
Black	67	865,000	73	425,000	62	440,000
Mixed	67	363,000	69	174,000	66	189,000
White	77	26,181,000	81	13,750,000	73	12,431,000
White British	76	23,645,000	80	12,436,000	73	11,209,000
White other	81	2,536,000	89	1,315,000	74	1,221,000
Other	62	486,000	70	277,000	53	209,000

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Employment By ethnicity and gender Summary

This data shows that:

• in 2017, the rate of employment for men was higher than the rate for women in all ethnic groups
• the difference in the employment rate between men and women of the same ethnicity was largest in the Pakistani/Bangladeshi ethnic group, where 71% of men and 38% of women were employed (a gap of 33 percentage points)
• the difference in the employment rate between men and women of the same ethnicity was smallest in the Mixed ethnic group, where 69% of men and 66% of women were employed (a gap of 3 percentage points)
• the difference between rates of employment for Pakistani/Bangladeshi women (38%) and White British women (73%) was 35 percentage points
• among women, those from the Other White ethnic group had the highest employment rate (74%), followed by White British women (73%) and Mixed ethnicity, and Indian women (both at 66%)
• among men, those from the Other White ethnic group had the highest employment rate (89%), followed by Indian (82%) and White British men (80%); men with Mixed ethnicity had the lowest employment rate (69%)

6. By ethnicity and age group

• Location: England, Wales and Scotland
• Time period: 2017
• Source: Annual Population Survey

Percentage and number of people aged 16 to 64 years in employment within each ethnic group, by age group

	16-24		25-49		50-64		All (16-64)
Ethnicity	16-24 %	16-24 Employed people	25-49 %	25-49 Employed people	50-64 %	50-64 Employed people	All (16-64) %	All (16-64) Employed people
All	54	3,745,000	84	17,678,000	71	8,519,000	75	29,943,000
Asian	34	222,000	74	1,466,000	65	341,000	64	2,029,000
Indian	44	76,000	83	608,000	69	158,000	74	842,000
Pakistani and Bangladeshi	32	94,000	64	486,000	53	78,000	55	658,000
Asian other including Chinese	29	52,000	75	372,000	71	105,000	64	528,000
Black	35	89,000	75	544,000	75	233,000	67	865,000
Mixed	48	88,000	81	229,000	64	46,000	67	363,000
White	58	3,305,000	86	15,068,000	71	7,808,000	77	26,181,000
White British	59	3,072,000	86	13,112,000	71	7,461,000	76	23,645,000
White other	55	233,000	87	1,956,000	73	347,000	81	2,536,000
Other	30	40,000	69	361,000	65	86,000	62	486,000

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Employment By ethnicity and age group Summary

This data shows that:

• in 2017, among people aged 16 to 24 years, the White British group had the highest rate of employment (59%), while the Other Asian group had the lowest rate (29%)
• among people aged 25 to 49 years, the Other White group had the highest rate of employment (87%), while the Pakistani/Bangladeshi group had the lowest rate (64%)
• among people aged 50 to 64 years, the Black group had the highest rate of employment (75%), and the Pakistani/Bangladeshi group had the lowest rate (53%)
• the difference between the employment rate for the whole population and the rate for ethnic minority groups (other than White minorities) was largest in the 16 to 24 age group, at 36% for ethnic minority groups compared with 54% overall (a difference of 19 percentage points) – download the data to see these figures in detail

7. By ethnicity and age group over time (16 to 24 year olds only)

• Location: England, Wales and Scotland
• Time period: 2004 to 2017
• Source: Annual Population Survey

Percentage of people aged 16 to 24 years in employment within each ethnic group over time

Ethnicity	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
All	60	59	58	57	56	53	50	49	50	50	51	54	54	54
Asian	37	36	39	35	37	33	30	N/A*	31	28	30	33	31	34
Indian	44	42	47	45	42	37	38	N/A*	41	33	34	35	35	44
Pakistani and Bangladeshi	33	35	36	30	34	32	30	N/A*	30	28	32	35	32	32
Asian other including Chinese	34	32	32	31	33	28	22	N/A*	23	24	24	27	27	29
Black	36	35	38	38	31	28	27	N/A*	27	27	31	32	38	35
Mixed	49	46	49	49	44	41	36	N/A*	41	43	43	42	39	48
White	63	62	61	61	60	56	54	N/A*	53	54	55	58	58	58
White British	63	62	61	61	59	56	54	N/A*	53	54	55	58	58	59
White other	56	62	65	61	63	57	55	N/A*	48	51	49	55	56	55
Other	36	36	34	37	37	30	29	N/A*			26	34	33	30

^* Not applicable Data withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Employment By ethnicity and age group over time (16 to 24 year olds only) Summary

The 16 to 24 year old age group was less likely to be employed than people in the older age groups. This is partly because people in this age group are more likely to be in full-time education. See Economic inactivity due to full-time education for more information.

This data shows that:

• between 2004 and 2017, the overall rate of employment among people aged 16 to 24 years fell from 60% to 54%; this pattern was seen in every ethnic group except the Indian group (where the rate stayed the same)
• during the same period, the Other ethnic group saw the largest fall in the rate of employment for 16 to 24 year olds, from 36% to 30% (a decrease of 6 percentage points)
• the Other Asian ethnic group saw the next largest fall in the rate of employment, from 34% in 2004 to 29% in 2017, followed by the White British ethnic group, from 63% in 2004 to 59% in 2017

8. By ethnicity and area

• Location: England, Wales and Scotland
• Time period: 2017
• Source: Annual Population Survey

Percentage of people aged 16 to 64 years in employment within each ethnic group, by area

Ethnicity	All	East Midlands	East of England	London	North East	North West	Scotland	South East	South West	Wales	West Midlands	Yorkshire and The Humber
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
All	75	74	78	74	71	73	74	79	79	72	72	73
Asian	64	60	72	66	58	58	63	75	67	59	59	53
Indian	74	69	78	74		68		82	75		70	72
Pakistani and Bangladeshi	55		57	57		52	64	68			51	48
Asian other including Chinese	64		81	67		64		72	66		51
Black	67	63	75	68		63		73			62	61
Mixed	67		69	68		62		71
White	77	76	78	79	71	75	75	80	79	73	75	76
White British	76	76	78	78	71	75	75	79	79	73	75	75
White other	81	77	86	80	70	79	79	82	85	75	79	81
Other	62			64		55		66			56

Data withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Employment By ethnicity and area Summary

This data shows that:

• the lowest rates of employment for each ethnic group were generally seen in the North, including the North East (70% for White Other and 71% for White British), the North West (55% for Other, 62% for Mixed and 68% for Indian) and Yorkshire and The Humber (48% for Pakistani and Bangladeshi, 61% for Black)
• the lowest rate of employment for the Other Asian ethnic group was seen in the West Midlands (51%)
• the highest employment rates for all ethnic groups were seen in the South, including the South East (82% for Indian, 79% for White British, 71% for the Mixed ethnic group, and 68% for Pakistani/Bangladeshi), the East of England (86% for Other White, 81% for Other Asian, 75% for Black) and the South West (also 79% for White British)

9. Methodology

The Annual Population Survey (APS) is a continuous household survey. Most people are interviewed in person first, and later by telephone. The sample is formed partly from waves 1 and 5 of the Labour Force Survey (in which selected addresses are contacted every 3 months) and partly from boost cases that are in the sample for 4 waves, spread one year apart.

Participants are randomly selected from the Royal Mail Postcode address File (PAF). The NHS communal accommodation list is also used and (in the case of remote parts of Scotland) telephone directories. All eligible individuals found at the selected address may be interviewed. Individuals are included in the dataset for this analysis if they respond themselves or if a family member responds on their behalf. The complex survey design has been taken into account when calculating confidence intervals.

Weighting:

The achieved sample of approximately 275,000 undergoes weighting which is structured at local authority level and uses age and sex dimensions.

Weighting is used to adjust the results of a survey to make them representative of the population and improve their accuracy For example, a survey which contains 25% females and 75% males will not accurately reflect the views of the general population, which we know is around 50% male and 50% female.

Statisticians rebalance or ‘weight’ the survey results to more accurately represent the general population. This helps to make them more reliable.

Survey weights are usually applied to make sure the survey sample has broadly the same gender, age, ethnic and geographic makeup as the general population.

The Office for National Statistics population estimates and projections are used as the basis for this weighting process.

Confidence intervals:

Confidence intervals for each ethnic group are available if you download the data.

Based on the APS, it is estimated that 64% of people of working age in the Asian ethnic group were employed in 2017.

The data from the APS is based on a sample of the population in England, Wales and Scotland, rather than the whole population. The estimate obtained from this sample is a reliable estimate of the employment rate (the percentage of individuals of working age who were employed), but it’s impossible to be 100% certain of the true percentage for the whole population.

It’s 95% certain, however, that somewhere between 62.2% (lower bound of the confidence interval) and 65.8% (upper bound of the confidence interval) of Asian people of working age were employed in 2017. In statistical terms, this is a 95% confidence interval. This means that if 100 random samples were taken, then 95 times out of 100 the estimate would fall between the lower and upper bounds of the confidence interval. But 5 times out of 100 it would fall outside this range.

The smaller the survey sample, the more uncertain the estimate and the wider the confidence interval. For example, the sample has less data for individuals from the Asian ethnic group than from the White ethnic group, so we can be less certain about the estimate for the smaller group. This greater uncertainty is expressed by a wider confidence interval, of between 62.2% and 65.8% for the Asian ethnic group compared with 76.3% and 77.1% for the White ethnic group in 2017.

Suppression rules and disclosure control

In data covering all ethnic groups together, estimates based on sample sizes of less than 30 have been suppressed. For data broken down by ethnic groups, estimates based on sample sizes under 100 have been suppressed.

‘Suppression’ means these figures have not been included in the data, to protect confidentiality and because the numbers involved are too small to draw any reliable conclusions.

Rounding

Percentages are rounded to whole numbers in charts and tables. Download the data to see the percentages rounded to 1 decimal place.

Quality and methodology information

10. Data sources

Source

Annual Population Survey

Type of data

Survey data

Type of statistic

National Statistics

Publisher

Office for National Statistics

Note on corrections or updates

Higher-level figures may differ from those published by the Department for Work and Pensions and the Office for National Statistics that use the Labour Force Survey.

Publication frequency

Yearly

Purpose of data source

The Annual Population Survey (APS) is the largest ongoing household survey in the UK and covers a range of topics, including:

• personal characteristics
• labour market status
• work characteristics
• education
• health

The purpose of the APS is to provide information on important social and socio-economic variables at local levels, such as labour market estimates.

The published statistics also allow the government to monitor estimates on a range of issues between censuses.

11. Download the data

Employment by local authority - Spreadsheet (csv) 716 KB

This file contains the following variables: measure, age_band, year, local_authority, ethnicity, ethnicity_type, value, confidence_interval, numerator, denominator, samp_size

Employment by region - Spreadsheet (csv) 1 MB

This file contains the following variables: measure, year, region, ethnicity, ethnicity_type, sex, age_band, value, confidence_interval, numerator, denominator, samp_size

Publication release date: 21 September 2018

Updated: 14 May 2019

full page history

1. 14 May 2019 Some headings have been changed. No data or commentary has been updated.
2. 8 March 2019 Added a meta description (for search engines, social sharing, etc.)
3. 21 September 2018 Updated to include new data (for 2017)

From: Office for National Statistics

Previous edition:

1. 26 January 2018

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