Ethnic minority graduates from a low socio-economic background are 45% less likely to be offered entry-level professional roles compared to more advantaged White applicants, finds a new report led by UCL researchers.
Graduates who are from a low socio-economic background (SEB) and / or are from an ethnic minority group are well represented in applicant pools to professional occupations.
However low SEB graduates are 32% less likely to receive a job offer than those from more wealthy backgrounds. Black applicants and Asian applicants are 45% and 29% respectively less likely to receive an offer than white applicants.
For low SEB candidates, the researchers attribute half of these job offer gaps to applicants not passing the initial online application sift and psychometric testing, with the other half emerging during face-to-face stages of the recruitment process.
In contrast, Black applicants were more likely not to pass beyond the initial online stage. These findings indicate that employer decision-making is partly responsible for these gaps.
The Nuffield Foundation-funded report, led by UCL researchers with Oxford Brookes University and published by the UCL Centre for Education Policy & Equalising Opportunities (CEPEO), analysed application data for entry-level roles from 17 large employers in the UK across the public and private sectors, including large law and accounting firms.
The research team received information on almost two million young people applying for these roles over the last decade and focused on graduate, internship and school leaver / apprenticeship entry routes for the most recent year of recruitment for this report (for over 250,000 applicants).
Lead author Professor Lindsey Macmillan (Director of CEPEO, IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education & Society) said: “Promoting diversity in the workplace is hugely beneficial to the UK economy, as previous research shows that countries that are more inclusive are more productive. Professional occupations also offer more job security together with better salary prospects. While previous work has shown that working class and ethnic minority young people are underrepresented in these occupations, it has not been clear to date whether this is because they are not applying to these roles, or if they are applying but just not being recruited. This report provides the first clear evidence that underrepresented groups are applying for these roles, yet they’re being recruited at a much lower rate even when they have attained the same level of education.”
The team considered key diversity characteristics including socio-economic background, basing advantage on whether the main earning parent of the applicant worked in a professional occupation, gender and ethnicity as well as university ranking, subject choice, region of origin, office location, access to professional networks, work experience and the type of role chosen to compare recruitment likelihood amongst similar candidates. Lower SEB and ethnic minority candidates faced large unexplained disadvantages even when accounting for these factors. For example, low SEB applicants were 18% less likely to receive a job offer than ‘like for like’ candidates from a professional background. Black applicants were 33% less likely to receive a job offer than ‘like for like’ White candidates.
The report is the first large-scale analysis to investigate the role of application and recruitment processes across sectors in driving inequality in access to professional roles.
Co-author Dr Claire Tyler (CEPEO, IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education & Society) said: “The employers in our sample have proactive social mobility strategies, are strong performers in the Social Mobility Employer Index and are open and generous with their data for research purposes, yet still barriers for working class and ethnic minority applicants remain. These barriers may be even larger for employers who are at the beginning of their social mobility journey. Employers who can access untapped talent pools to attract, hire and retain the best UK talent will be better prepared for skills shortages, longer term declining birth rates and the forecast growth in professional jobs over the coming decade.”
When analysing recruitment for apprenticeships or school leaver roles, low SEB applicants are 17% less likely to be recruited than wealthier peers. Black and Asian applicants are overrepresented in applications but are 43% and 35% respectively less likely to receive offers. White low SEB applicants are 20% less likely to be recruited than White professional applicants. However, ethnic minority applicants from any socio-economic background face the highest disadvantage, being 35% less likely to be recruited than White applicants from a professional background.
The researchers found when analysing recruitment for internships taken up before graduation that Black applicants are 20% more likely to receive offers than their White or Asian peers, reflecting the use of internships to build more diverse talent pipelines. Internship applicants are more likely to be from advantaged backgrounds, from London or southern England and / or attend a Russell Group university.
Privately-educated applicants are twice as prominent in applications compared to the graduate population and are offered internships at a similar rate to state-educated applicants, meaning a high proportion of internships go to privately-educated graduates. This also means that state-educated applicants are just as likely to be offered internships but are less likely to apply.
Across all three entry routes, women were underrepresented in applications but those who do apply are more likely to receive offers than men, including when accounting for socioeconomic background and ethnicity.
The researchers have made several policy recommendations for employers and universities. Employers should track socio-economic background alongside gender and ethnicity data for applicants, review recruitment processes for potential bias, consider monitoring and maintaining diverse applicant pools throughout the recruitment process and account for socio-economic and cultural differences when designing face-to-face assessments. They should also expand outreach work to attract women and state-educated applicants to internships.
Universities should support disadvantaged students to be better prepared for the careers market, encouraging them to apply early to graduate schemes to improve success rates and provide more guidance on internship schedules. Institutions and employers should build stronger connections and collaborate to support career guidance and recruitment strategies.
The research was funded by the Nuffield Foundation and reviewed by an independent advisory board.
Dr Emily Tanner, Programme Head at the Nuffield Foundation said: “This important research shows that closing education attainment gaps is not enough to improve social mobility. By identifying where in the recruitment process disparities occur for different groups of young people, this novel research is an important first step for designing more equitable approaches.”
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