THE unemployment rate for black and ethnic minority (BME) workers was more than two times that of their white peers last year, with women particularly badly affected, the TUC warned today.

Its analysis of the latest Office for National Statistics data shows that 6.9 per cent of BME people were out of work in 2022, compared to 3.2 per cent of white workers. 

The study, published to coincide with the start of the TUC’s three-day black workers’ conference in London, also reveals that a whopping 8.1 per cent of BME women were unemployed, as opposed to 2.8 per cent of their white counterparts.

The situation has worsened since the 2008 financial crash, the union body noted, as it repeated calls for an end to “structural discrimination and inequalities that hold BME people back at work.”

General secretary Paul Nowak said that the disparity is “not right,” saying: “There’s no hiding from the fact that racism still plays a huge part in our jobs market.

“Ministers must take bold action to confront this inequality. The obvious first step is forcing bigger companies to disclose their ethnicity pay gaps.

“This will make employers confront the inequalities in their own workforces and act to fix them. 

“Business and unions are united in their support for compulsory pay gap monitoring — ministers must bring it in without delay.”

Frances O’Grady’s successor also demanded an end to zero-hour contracts and other forms of “insecure and poor-quality work.

“Raising the floor of rights for everyone will disproportionately benefit BME workers,” he stressed.

“Reversing outsourcing, introducing fair pay agreements across the economy and giving workers the right to access their union on-site would also improve rights for all.”