Jews had higher fall in employment than other faith groups since 2008

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”.