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16th November 2010
Many NBP members and other BAME colleagues that I speak to tell me they are very worried and apprehensive about the future. With such huge reductions in public expenditure about to bite and with the associated loss of public and private sector jobs, ethnic minority professionals are looking for guidance and advice on how to respond to what may lie ahead. We have recently run a series of very successful regional workshops to help individuals prepare themselves for what may be around the corner and what to do if they are unfortunate enough to be made redundant. But evidence from previous recessions tends to suggest that BAME workers may be more at risk from redundancies than other groups? We know that ethnic minority teachers and lecturers are more likely to be employed on temporary and fixed-terms contracts and that employers may look to lose these workers first when they need to make staffing reductions.
We also know that 40% of ethnic minority workers are employed in the public sector so this would tend to suggest that that ethnic minority staff working in local government, in schools and colleges, in housing associations, in the voluntary and community sectors and in social enterprises are at particular risk. The Higher Education Statistical Agency published figures in 2007 that showed that ethnic minority graduates were two and half times more likely to be unemployed than their white colleagues and that was for students graduating in 2003 when jobs were much more plentiful. It is likely that the latest figures will show that the position for BAME graduates may be much worse now.
But we would really like to hear from you as BAME professionals on this issue. What has been your experience? Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future? What have you been doing to prepare personally and collectively for the future?
Post your comments on this blog now.