Socio-economics and black and minority ethnics in the UK construction industry

The UK construction industry is positioned as the country’s top employer with over two million employees. However, it is facing severe ongoing skills shortages and tends to lack an ethnic diversity of workers compared to the White community of workers across the whole economy. The government’s Ethnic Minority Employment Task Force shows that for any given level of qualification, a Black or ethnic minority person is less likely to be employed (i.e. placed further down the 'queue' of those being considered for employment), than a similarly qualified White person. Current research into issues surrounding ethnicity, including how these skills fit in with individual, social and economic issues alongside potential direct and indirect discrimination is very scare and limited. The European Social Funded Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) in Construction project is researching the main barriers that BMEs face within the industry. Findings gathered from the postgraduate focus group in Higher Education (HE) are analysed and assessed in this paper. These findings have led to the conceptualisation of research themes that serve to both inform and direct the activities of the research project as well as outlining areas and issues where further and expanded research is required over the longer term.