LONDON: The employment rate of Indian community has reached a record high in Britain, according to the Britain’s labour market data collected by the government.
The employment rate for the Indian community in the UK reached 71.6% in 2014 – the highest ever.
The employment rate of Pakistanis and Bangladeshi jointly was only 51% while that of the Chinese was 56%.
This means 7,84,000 Indians are working in Britain, an increase of 32,000 from the previous year and a whopping 2,38,000 more since 2005. Of these, over 100,000 people from the Indian community run their own businesses in the UK.
As against Indians, only 5,60,000 Pakistanis and Bangladeshis were in jobs in 2014 while the number was as low as 1,35,000 among Britain’s Chinese community.
The rate at which Indians in UK are getting jobs has left all other ethnic minority groups behind. In 2006, 6,00,000 Indians aged 16 years and over were employed. The number increased to 6,38,000 in 2008, 6,71,000 in 2009 and 6,92,000 in 2010. In 2011, the numbers for the first time breached the seven lakh mark with 7,12,000 Indians in jobs in 2011 and 7,52,000 in 2013.
In an exclusive interview to TOI, Britain’s employment minister Priti Patel who is also Prime Minister David Cameron’s Indian diaspora champion said: “UK is home to a large and successful Indian diaspora community who are highly driven, educated and integrated to every aspect of British life. Their contribution to Britain is absolutely phenomenal. When PM Modi visits UK, it will fill him with great pride to see how successful British Indians are”.
Patel said, “Latest figures show that the British Indian community is highly successful when it comes to running their own businesses. The employment rate among the Indian community reached a record high last year and we also have over 100,000 people from the Indian community in UK who are running their own business. At a time when we have over 700,000 vacancies in the job market in UK, we know British Indians are excelling in every walk of life.”
The employment data shows that the employment rate among 16-64 year olds in the overall population in UK was 73% while among the ethnic minority groups it was 61.4%.
The unemployment rate among the overall population was 6% as against 11.3% among ethnic minority groups.
Indians in UK were also recently found to be the most prosperous among all minority groups.
Almost all minority groups, except the Indian community, have unemployment rates two times the national average.
Black Africans (18.3%) have the highest unemployment rate. Around 39% of Pakistani and 42% of Bangladeshi women have never worked.
Almost 1 in 4 Pakistani men are taxi drivers and half of all Bangladeshi men work in restaurants. In contrast 43% of Indians work in the highest skilled professions.
Indians are the most successful ethnic minority group with 15.4% found in class 1 of eight occupational groups, comprising higher managerial, administrative roles as well as professions like doctors and lawyers.
Estimates say that almost one in three people in Britain will be from an ethnic minority by 2050. Non-white people will make up between 20 and 30% of the population by 2050. The current share is around 14%.
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