Labour Market Statistics for Scotland by Ethnicity, January to December 2021

Equality characteristics

The difference between the employment rates for the white and minority ethnic groups is the ethnicity employment rate gap. It is defined as the employment rate for the white groups minus the employment rate for the minority ethnic groups. When looking at equality characteristics it can give an insight into the ways that sex, age, and disability can affect the employment rate for the minority ethnic groups compared to the white groups.

Sex

In January to December 2021, the gap between the employment rate for white men and minority ethnic men was -1.5 percentage points (pp). This was the first time since 2011 that the employment rate for minority ethnic men was higher than white men (77.3 and 75.8 per cent respectively).

In contrast, the gap between the employment rate for white women and minority ethnic women was 23.1 pp. This was the fourth largest gap since 2011 and was 7.3 pp larger than in 2020. The ethnicity employment rate gap for women in 2020 (15.8 pp) was the smallest gap since 2011. The increase in 2021 is explained by the employment rate for white women remaining unchanged (72.0 per cent in 2020 and 2021) and the employment rate for minority ethnic women decreasing (from 56.2 per cent in 2020 to 48.9 per cent in 2021).

Chart 1: Ethnicity employment rate gap of people aged 16 to 64 by sex, Scotland, 2011 to 2021

Source: Annual Population Survey, January to December data, ONS

Age

In January to December 2021, the white employment rate was higher than the minority ethnic employment rate for all ages except those aged 50 to 64. For those aged 50 to 64, the ethnicity employment rate gap was -8.4 pp. For all other age groups, the white employment rate was higher than the minority ethnic employment rate by around the same amount.

Of the remaining groups, the 35 to 49 year olds had the smallest gap at 17.9 pp and the 16 to 24 year olds had the largest gap at 19.6 pp. However, since 2011, the gap has increased in both the 25 to 34 and 35 to 49 age groups. The gap has decreased for those aged 16 to 24.

For 16 to 24 year olds, the employment rate for both the white and minority ethnic groups has been increasing since 2011 keeping the gap relatively stable. For 25 to 34 and 35 to 49 year olds, the white employment rate has been increasing slightly but the minority ethnic employment rate has been decreasing slightly. This has increased the gap.

The gap for 16 to 24 year olds is based on a minority ethnic employment rate which is from a small sample size and should be used with caution.

Chart 2: Ethnicity employment rate gap by broad age group, Scotland, 2011 to 2021

Source: Annual Population Survey, January to December data, ONS

Disability

In January to December 2021, the employment rate gap between the white groups and the minority ethnic groups who are disabled was 6.4 pp. This was less than half the gap when compared with non-disabled people (15.9 pp). Since 2014, the gap for non-disabled people has been consistently larger than the gap for disabled people.

The size of the gap is explained by the employment rate for white non-disabled people being far higher than the employment rate for minority ethnic non-disabled people (81.8 and 65.9 per cent respectively). The employment rate for white non-disabled people was also much higher than the employment rate for white disabled people (49.9 per cent in 2021). The employment rate for white disabled people was closer to the employment rate for minority ethnic disabled people (43.5 per cent in 2021).

Chart 3: Ethnicity employment rate gap by disability, Scotland, 2014 to 2021

Source: Annual Population Survey, January to December, ONS