Jews experienced a higher fall
in employment rates than any other religious group since the economic crash of
2008, a study has shown, but despite this they still have “significantly”
higher pay.
In
a new equality and human rights report called ‘Is Britian Fairer?’
authors note that Jews “experienced the highest fall in employment rates of any
religious group between 2008 and 2013” but “continued to have the lowest
unemployment rate”.
On
the subject of pay, they say that “despite experiencing the highest fall in
employment rates, Jewish people continued to have significantly higher pay than
people of any other religion in 2013”.
Sikhs’
pay fell by an average of £1.90 per hour, the report says, while the hourly
rate among African/Caribbean/Black employees dropped by £1.20 per hour.
“The
report highlights that some of the UK’s most disadvantaged and marginalised
people and communities continue to suffer discrimination and inequality,” said
Mia Hasenson-Gross, director of Jewish human rights group René Cassin.
She
added that the government’s attack on the Human Rights Act, which “defends the
principle of fairness in this country,” was a move that posed “a significant
threat to human rights protection in the UK”.
Elsewhere
in the report, authors noted that Jews and Christians “saw a decrease in the
percentage of adults who reported that they had been a victim of violent crime”
but that a rise in anti-Semitic incidents “has been associated with… fighting
between Hamas and Israel in 2014”.
