Employment

Published 16 October 2019

Last updated 5 March 2020 - see all updates

This page corrects mistakes in a previous version. See details.

Contents

1. Main facts and figures

• 75% of working age people (people aged 16 to 64) in England, Wales and Scotland were employed in 2018
• 77% of White people were employed, compared with 65% of people from all other ethnic groups combined
• the difference in the employment rates between the White ethnic group and all other ethnic groups combined went down from 16 percentage points in 2004 to 12 percentage points in 2018
• the highest employment rate was in the Other White ethnic group, at 82%
• the lowest employment rate was in the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group, at 57%
• between 2004 and 2018, the biggest employment rate increases were in the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group (up by 13 percentage points) and the Other White ethnic group (up by 11 percentage points)
• the highest employment rates for most ethnic groups were generally found in the South and East of England and the lowest were generally found in the North of England and Scotland

Things you need to know

In 2018, the total working age population (people aged 16 to 64 years) in England, Wales and Scotland was just over 40 million. Of those, just over 34 million people were White, and nearly 6 million people were from all other ethnic groups combined.

The data for this analysis comes from the Annual Population Survey (APS). The APS surveys a random sample of the population to make generalisations about the whole population.

The commentary for this data includes only reliable findings. Findings are reliable ('statistically significant’) when we can be confident they are reflective of the total population. This means we would get similar findings 19 times out of 20 if we carried out the same survey on different random samples of the population.

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 low number of responses are more likely to change from year to year. What appear to be changes over time might not reflect real differences. Please use caution when interpreting short-term trends in the data, especially for small groups.

Values based on fewer than 30 responses have been withheld from results for 'All' groups. Values based on fewer than 100 responses have been withheld from results for specific ethnic groups. This is both:

• to protect respondents’ confidentiality
• because the numbers involved are too small to draw any reliable conclusions

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 (LFS).

The APS updated its ethnicity questions in 2011 so they were consistent with the censuses in England, Wales and Scotland. As a result, estimates from before and after 2011 may be inconsistent, and data for individual ethnic groups in 2011 is not available.

Download the data for both the data shown and additional estimates for:

• the 2 broad ethnic groups (White and Other than White) at the lower local authority level
• the Other than White ethnic group broken down by age, gender and over time
• data by ethnicity and age over time for all age groups
• quarterly data for 2 broad ethnic groups (White and Other than White)

What the data measures

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

The employment rate is 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 and Bangladeshi
• Asian Other (including Chinese)

Black

Mixed

White:

• White British
• White Other

Other

Data broken down by local authority is shown in the download files. For this data, the number of people surveyed 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 than White – all other ethnic minorities

People whose ethnicity is not known are included in the figures for ‘All’.

2. By ethnicity

• Location: England, Wales and Scotland
• Time period: 2018
• Source: Annual Population Survey

Percentage and number of 16 to 64 year olds who were employed, by ethnicity

Ethnicity	%	Number of people employed
All	75	30,116,600
Asian	66	2,084,600
Indian	76	856,200
Pakistani, Bangladeshi	57	715,600
Asian Other	64	512,900
Black	67	940,900
Mixed	67	365,800
White	77	26,212,300
White British	76	23,733,100
White Other	82	2,479,200
Other	61	488,300

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Employment By ethnicity Summary

This data shows that:

• 75% of working age people (aged 16 to 64) in England, Scotland and Wales were employed in 2018
• 82% of people from the Other White ethnic group were employed, the highest percentage out of all ethnic groups
• 57% of people from the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group were employed, the lowest percentage out of all ethnic groups

3. By ethnicity over time (White and Other than White)

• Location: England, Wales and Scotland
• Time period: 2004 to 2018
• Source: Annual Population Survey

Percentage and number of 16 to 64 year olds who were employed, by ethnicity (White and Other than White) over time

	All		White		Other than White
Year	All %	All Number of people employed	White %	White Number of people employed	Other than White %	Other than White Number of people employed
2004	73	27,057,900	74	25,022,700	58	2,011,900
2005	73	27,365,300	74	25,180,000	59	2,163,400
2006	73	27,592,800	74	25,245,300	59	2,329,900
2007	73	27,850,200	74	25,347,400	60	2,486,900
2008	72	27,957,200	74	25,329,800	60	2,611,100
2009	71	27,508,700	72	24,846,400	59	2,640,900
2010	70	27,484,600	72	24,703,600	59	2,755,200
2011	70	27,546,800
2012	71	27,759,100	72	24,749,700	59	2,993,800
2013	71	28,069,200	73	24,996,900	59	3,055,700
2014	72	28,585,700	74	25,277,300	61	3,259,400
2015	74	29,208,300	75	25,718,900	63	3,453,800
2016	74	29,506,000	76	25,830,800	64	3,651,900
2017	75	29,946,000	77	26,214,500	65	3,712,500
2018	75	30,116,600	77	26,212,300	65	3,879,600

Data not collected

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Employment By ethnicity over time (White and Other than White) Summary

This data shows that:

• in 2018, the employment rate was higher for the White ethnic group (77%) compared with all other ethnic groups combined (65%)
• the difference in the employment rates for White people and those from all other ethnic groups combined decreased from 16 percentage points in 2004 to 12 percentage points in 2018
• the third quarter of 2018 (July to September) had the highest employment rate for ethnic minorities (excluding White minorities) at 67% – download the data for quarterly figures

4. By ethnicity over time

• Location: England, Wales and Scotland
• Time period: 2004 to 2018
• Source: Annual Population Survey

Percentage of 16 to 64 year olds who were employed, by ethnicity over time

Ethnicity	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
All	73	73	73	73	72	71	70	70	71	71	72	74	74	75	75
Asian	57	57	58	58	59	59	59		59	59	62	63	63	64	66
Indian	68	69	69	69	69	68	70		69	69	71	71	73	74	76
Pakistani, Bangladeshi	44	44	45	45	46	47	46		48	49	52	53	54	55	57
Asian Other	58	60	60	61	64	63	59		60	59	62	64	63	64	64
Black	60	61	62	63	61	58	60		60	61	62	65	67	67	67
Mixed	62	62	65	63	60	60	61		60	62	63	65	64	67	67
White	74	74	74	74	74	72	72		72	73	74	75	76	77	77
White British	74	74	74	74	74	72	72		72	73	74	75	75	76	76
White Other	71	73	74	75	75	74	74		75	76	77	79	80	81	82
Other	55	57	55	58	58	56	56		56	57	57	59	61	62	61

Data not collected

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Employment By ethnicity over time Summary

This data shows that:

• between 2004 and 2018, the employment rate increased in every ethnic group
• the biggest increases were in the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group, where the employment rate went up from 44% to 57% (up by 13 percentage points) and the Other White ethnic group, where the rate went up from 71% to 82% (up by 11 percentage points)
• the smallest increase was in the White British ethnic group, where the employment rate went up from 74% to 76% (up by 2 percentage points)

5. By ethnicity and gender

• Location: England, Wales and Scotland
• Time period: 2018
• Source: Annual Population Survey

Percentage and number of 16 to 64 year olds who were employed, by ethnicity and gender

	All		Men		Women
Ethnicity	All %	All Number of people employed	Men %	Men Number of people employed	Women %	Women Number of people employed
All	75	30,116,600	80	15,895,800	71	14,220,800
Asian	66	2,084,600	77	1,212,000	54	872,600
Indian	76	856,200	83	476,300	69	379,900
Pakistani, Bangladeshi	57	715,600	75	480,800	39	234,800
Asian Other	64	512,900	71	254,900	58	258,000
Black	67	940,900	72	470,500	63	470,300
Mixed	67	365,800	71	186,300	63	179,500
White	77	26,212,300	81	13,733,200	73	12,479,000
White British	76	23,733,100	80	12,444,400	73	11,288,700
White Other	82	2,479,200	88	1,288,800	76	1,190,400
Other	61	488,300	70	280,200	51	208,100

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Employment By ethnicity and gender Summary

This data shows that:

• in every ethnic group, the employment rate was higher for men than women
• the gap between men and women was biggest in the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group, where 75% of men and 39% of women were employed (a 36 percentage point difference)
• the gap was smallest in the White British ethnic group, where 80% of men and 73% of women were employed (a 7 percentage point difference)
• for both men and women, the highest employment rate was in the Other White ethnic group (88% for men, 76% for women)
• the lowest employment rate among women was in the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group, at 39%
• the lowest employment rate among men was in the Other ethnic group, at 70%

6. By ethnicity and age

• Location: England, Wales and Scotland
• Time period: 2018
• Source: Annual Population Survey

Percentage and number of 16 to 64 year olds who were employed, by ethnicity and age

	16-24		25-49		50-64		All
Ethnicity	16-24 %	16-24 Number of people employed	25-49 %	25-49 Number of people employed	50-64 %	50-64 Number of people employed	All %	All Number of people employed
All	54	3,656,100	84	17,725,400	72	8,735,200	75	30,116,600
Asian	37	231,700	75	1,502,900	66	350,000	66	2,084,600
Indian	43	67,200	84	621,800	73	167,100	76	856,200
Pakistani, Bangladeshi	37	116,600	66	517,000	53	82,000	57	715,600
Asian other	29	47,900	75	364,000	67	100,900	64	512,900
Black	33	96,200	76	584,300	75	260,400	67	940,900
Mixed	46	84,600	80	231,500	70	49,600	67	365,800
White	58	3,195,100	86	15,044,100	72	7,973,100	77	26,212,300
White British	58	2,998,500	86	13,143,900	72	7,590,800	76	23,733,100
White other	53	196,600	87	1,900,300	79	382,300	82	2,479,200
Other	31	46,100	68	349,600	64	92,600	61	488,300

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Employment By ethnicity and age Summary

This data shows that:

• the total employment rate was 54% for 16 to 24 year olds, 84% for 25 to 49 year olds, and 72% for 50 to 64 year olds
• among 16 to 24 year olds, the highest employment rate was in the White British ethnic group (58%), and the lowest was in the Other Asian group (29%)
• among 25 to 49 year olds, the highest employment rate was in the Other White ethnic group (87%), and the lowest was in the Pakistani/Bangladeshi group (66%)
• among 50 to 64 year olds, the highest employment rate was in the Other White ethnic group (79%), and the lowest was in the Pakistani/Bangladeshi group (53%)
• the difference in the employment rate between White people and those from ethnic minorities (excluding White minorities) was biggest among 16 to 24 year olds, where 58% of White people and 36% of those from ethnic minorities were employed
• the difference in the employment rate between White people and those from ethnic minorities was smallest among 50 to 64 year olds, where 72% of White people and 69% of those from ethnic minorities were employed – download the data to see these figures in detail

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

• Location: England, Wales and Scotland
• Time period: 2004 to 2018
• Source: Annual Population Survey

Percentage of 16 to 24 year olds who were employed, by ethnicity over time

Ethnicity	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
All	60	59	58	57	56	53	50	49	50	50	51	54	54	54	54
Asian	37	36	39	35	37	33	30		31	28	30	33	31	34	37
Indian	44	42	47	45	42	37	38		41	33	34	35	35	43	43
Pakistani, Bangladeshi	33	35	36	30	34	32	30		30	28	32	35	32	32	37
Asian Other	34	32	32	31	33	28	22		23	24	24	27	27	29	29
Black	36	35	38	38	31	28	27		27	27	31	32	37	34	33
Mixed	49	46	49	49	44	41	36		41	43	43	42	39	47	46
White	63	62	61	61	60	56	54		53	54	55	58	58	58	58
White British	63	62	61	61	59	56	54		53	54	55	58	58	59	58
White Other	56	62	65	61	63	57	55		48	51	49	55	56	55	53
Other	36	36	34	37	37	30	29		26	25	26	34	32	30	31

Data not collected

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

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

16 to 24 year olds were less likely to be employed than older people. This is partly because people in this age group were more likely to be students and therefore classed as economically inactive.

This data shows that:

• between 2004 and 2018, the total employment rate among 16 to 24 year olds went down from 60% to 54%
• the biggest decreases were in the White British ethnic group (where the employment rate went down from 63% to 58%) and the Other Asian group (where it went down from 34% to 29%)

8. By ethnicity and area

• Location: England, Wales and Scotland
• Time period: 2018
• Source: Annual Population Survey

Percentage of 16 to 64 year olds who were employed, by ethnicity and 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	75	78	74	71	74	74	78	79	73	73	74
Asian	66	65	71	68	62	58	59	72	71	62	62	57
Indian	76	72	83	79		69		81	76		72	71
Pakistani, Bangladeshi	57	57	58	59	60	56	59	66			55	51
Asian Other	64	52	73	66		51	54	67	67	59	63	68
Black	67	64	83	66	58	68	56	72	72	56	64	70
Mixed	67	61	73	68		62		76	71	76	57	69
White	77	76	78	80	72	76	75	79	79	74	76	75
White British	76	76	78	78	72	76	75	79	79	74	76	75
White Other	82	81	83	83	73	81	78	81	86	80	81	82
Other	61		79	61	45	53	50	70	60	62	58	53

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 employment rates were in the North of England and Scotland
• the highest employment rates were in the South and the East of England
• out of all combinations of ethnicity and area where data was reliable, the highest employment rate was for people in the Other White ethnic group living in the South West, at 86%
• the lowest rate was for people in the Other ethnic group living in the North East, at 45%

9. By ethnicity, disability and gender

• Location: England, Wales and Scotland
• Time period: 2018
• Source: Annual Population Survey

Percentage of 16 to 64 year olds who were employed, by ethnicity, disability and gender

	All			Men			Women
Ethnicity	All All (%)	All Disabled (%)	All Non-disabled (%)	Men All (%)	Men Disabled (%)	Men Non-disabled (%)	Women All (%)	Women Disabled (%)	Women Non-disabled (%)
All	75	51	81	80	52	85	71	51	76
Asian	66	48	69	77	59	80	54	39	58
Indian	76	58	79	83	62	86	69	55	71
Pakistani, Bangladeshi	57	42	61	75	60	78	39	26	42
Asian Other	64	48	66	71	53	74	58	44	60
Black	67	44	71	72	42	76	63	45	66
Mixed	67	44	72	71	48	76	63	41	69
White	77	52	83	81	52	87	73	52	79
White British	76	52	83	80	52	86	73	52	79
White Other	82	62	84	88	67	90	76	59	78
Other	61	40	65	70	41	76	51	40	54

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Employment By ethnicity, disability and gender Summary

This data shows that:

• in 2018, the total employment rate was 51% among disabled people and 81% among non-disabled people
• in every ethnic group, disabled people had a lower employment rate than non-disabled people
• disabled men had a lower employment rate than non-disabled men in every ethnic group
• disabled women had a lower employment rate than non-disabled women in every ethnic group except the Other ethnic group, where the difference was not meaningful
• among disabled people, the lowest employment rate was in the Other ethnic group (at 40%) and the highest was in the Other White ethnic group (at 62%)
• the biggest gap between disabled men and women was in the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic group, where 60% of disabled men and 26% of disabled women were employed

10. Methodology

The Annual Population Survey is a continuous household survey. Most people are interviewed in person first, and later by telephone.

The sample is formed from:

• waves 1 and 5 of the Labour Force Survey (in which selected addresses are contacted every 3 months)
• 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. 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.

People 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 sample of approximately 275,000 people undergoes weighting at local authority level, using age and sex dimensions.

Weighting adjusts the results of a survey to make them representative of the population and make them more reliable.

For example, a survey of 25 women and 75 men will not accurately reflect the views of the general population, which is around 50% male and 50% female.

The weighting for this data is based on Office for National Statistics population statistics.

Confidence intervals:

Download the data for confidence intervals for each ethnic group.

The data from the APS is based on a sample of the population in England, Wales and Scotland, rather than the whole population. The estimates obtained from this sample are reliable estimates but it’s impossible to be 100% certain of the true percentage for the whole population. For example it is estimated that 65.5% of people of working age in the Asian ethnic group were employed in 2018, with a 95% confidence interval of 64.1% to 66.9%.

This means that the actual employment rate is likely to be somewhere between 64.1% (lower confidence interval) and 66.9% (upper confidence interval). In statistical terms, this means that if 100 samples were taken, 95 times out of 100 the estimated Asian employment rate would be between 64.1% and 66.9%. 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 accuracy of the estimates for the Asian group. This greater uncertainty is expressed by a wider confidence interval compared with the White ethnic group (of between 76.6% and 77.2%).

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

Estimates in the charts and tables are rounded to whole percentages. Estimates in the download file are rounded to 1 decimal place.

Quality and methodology information

11. Data sources

Source

Annual Population Survey

Type of data

Survey data

Type of statistic

Official statistics

Publisher

Office for National Statistics

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 government to monitor estimates on a range of issues between Censuses.

12. Download the data

Employment by region - Spreadsheet (csv) 3 MB

This file contains the following variables: Measure, Measure_type, Ethnicity, Ethnicity_type, Time, Time_type, Region, Age, Age_type, Sex, Value, Confidence_interval, Numerator, Denominator, Sample_size

Employment quarterly data - Spreadsheet (csv) 6 KB

This file contains the following: Measure, Measure_type, Time, Ethnicity, Ethnicity_type, Value.

Employment by local authority - Spreadsheet (csv) 2 MB

This file contains the following variables: Measure, Measure_type, Ethnicity, Ethnicity_type, Time, Time_type, Local_authority, Age, Value, Confidence_interval, Numerator, Denominator, Sample_size

Employment by disability - Spreadsheet (csv) 792 KB

This file contains the following: Measure, Measure_type, Ethnicity, Ethnicity_type, Time, Time_Type, Region, Age, Age_Type, Sex, Disability, Value, Confidence_Interval, Numerator, Denominator, Sample_Size

Publication release date: 16 October 2019

Updated: 5 March 2020

full page history

1. 5 March 2020 In section 1, point 6, the years have been corrected to 2004 and 2018, instead of 2004 and 2008.
2. 5 December 2019 In the section 'By ethnicity and age', the final bullet point said that, among 50 to 64 year olds, 77% of White people and 65% of those from ethnic minorities were employed. The correct figures are 72% and 69% respectively. In the 'Main facts and figures' section, the final bullet point has been updated to say the lowest rates of employment were generally found in 'the North of England and Scotland'. (It previously said 'the North'.) An additional data download file has been added, with data broken down by ethnicity and disability.
3. 16 October 2019 Updated with the latest available data (for 2018).

From: Office for National Statistics

Previous editions:

1. 14 May 2019
2. 26 January 2018

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