Indicator
Inequalities in unemployment
Published
28 March 2024
Last updated
30 June 2025
Time to read
About 2 mins
About 2 mins
Key points
- While unemployment rates are historically relatively low, inequalities persist between some groups.
- Younger adults, people from mixed ethnic, Pakistani/Bangladeshi, black, and other minority ethnic backgrounds in particular have higher than average unemployment rates.
Unemployment can affect people’s health in several ways: it can act as a source of stress, and deprive people of income and social networks.
This chart shows the proportion of UK adults aged 16–64 years who reported they were unemployed in 2024. The data are split by ethnicity, age, sex and region/country.
- Younger age groups are generally more likely to experience unemployment. 17.3% of 16 to 19-year-olds and 10.1% of 20 to 24-year-olds are unemployed, compared with 3.4% of people aged 25 to 34 years.
- Unemployment is higher for people from every minority ethnic group compared with people from white backgrounds. In 2024 the unemployment rate ranged from 3.1% for white people, to 9.0% for people from mixed or multiple ethnic groups. The unemployment rate is more than two times higher for some groups, including people from Pakistani/Bangladeshi, black, and mixed or multiple ethnic backgrounds.
- There are large differences in unemployment rates between regions. In 2024, unemployment rates varied between 5.1% in London and 2.9% in Yorkshire and the Humber.
- There is a small difference in unemployment rates between men and women: 4.1% of men are unemployed compared with 3.6% of women.
- Unemployment is defined – in line with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) definition – as people aged 16 years and older actively seeking and being available for work.
Source: Office for National Statistics, Annual Population Survey, UK, 2024
