Britain still divided
Mon 4 Feb 2008
There is still a significant gap between employment rates for ethnic minorities and the rest of the UK, a new report has found. The National Audit Office (NAO) said it could take 30 years to close the divide and it criticised the Department for Work and Pensions' (DWP) current strategy. In the NAO's view, the department has achieved some success but its plans have "lacked continuity". The Comptroller and Auditor General said there had been a "slow but steady improvement". However, he went on to say "the overall reduction in the employment gap has been modest". "Unless the department is prepared to do more to reach out to the ethnic minority communities, prospects for increasing their employment rate remain bleak," he warned. The NAO research found the unemployment rate for the ethnic minority population is 60 per cent while it is 74 per cent for the general population. According to the report, the DWP reached its previous target to reduce the gap and should meet its next objective later this year.
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