Persisting disadvantages: a study of labour market dynamics of ethnic unemployment and earnings in the UK (2009–2015)

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Bibliography: Li, Y., Heath, A., 2020. Persisting disadvantages: a study of labour market dynamics of ethnic unemployment and earnings in the UK (2009–2015). Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 46, 857–878. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2018.1539241

Authors:: Yaojun Li, Anthony Heath

Collections:: UCL UKHLS Dump

First-page: 857

Abstract

This paper investigates the ethnic dynamics of unemployment and earnings in the UK. Drawing on data from the ﬁrst six waves of Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2009–2014), the analysis shows that ethnic minority members, particularly black African, black Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi minorities, face much higher risks of unemployment and have much lower levels of earnings than do their white British counterparts over the life course. Ethnic minorities are not only more likely to face unemployment, previous experiences of unemployment also carry more enduring scars for them than for the majority group in terms of reemployment and pay. Even with similar levels of prior unemployment, ethnic minorities are more susceptible to delayed re-entry and wage penalties than are their white British peers. The life-course trajectories in unemployment and lower pay, coupled with unemployment scarring, suggest cumulative ethnic disadvantages in the UK.

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Reading notes

Imported on 2024-06-26 11:23

⭐ Important

& the analysis shows that ethnic minority members, particularly black African, black Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi minorities, face much higher risks of unemployment and have much lower levels of earnings than do their white British counterparts over the life course. (p. 857)
& Ethnic minorities are not only more likely to face unemployment, previous experiences of unemployment also carry more enduring scars for them than for the majority group in terms of reemployment and pay. (p. 857)
& The life-course trajectories in unemployment and lower pay, coupled with unemployment scarring, suggest cumulative ethnic disadvantages in the UK. (p. 857)
& he most salient disadvantages are found in terms of economic inactivity, unemployment/underemployment, and lower pay, with particularly high rates of unemployment experienced by young people from some ethnic minority groups during the economic downturns of the mid-1980s, early 1990s and the most recent one that started in 2008, and lower levels of earnings when in paid employment (Berthoud 2000; Dustmann et al. 2003; Platt 2006;NEP2007; Heath and Li 2008; Li and Heath 2008,2010,2016; Nandi and Platt 2010; Zucotti and Platt 2016). (p. 857)
& We specify two-level linear growth models to estimate the life-course effects on unemployment and labour-market earnings over the six-wave period (from 2009/2010 to 2014/ 2015), and to address issues of heterogeneity in these trajectories by time-constant and time-varying covariates. The models are specified as follows. (p. 860)