Ethnic Minority populations and the Labour Market: Analysis of the 2001 Census

Neighbourhood effects

The website’s neighbourhood profiles, available from the home page by clicking ‘Select neighbourhood(s)’, calculate neighbourhood effects. These are a comparison of a neighbourhood employment outcome with what would be expected given the local residents’ mix of age, sex, birthplace, and qualifications.

For example, a neighbourhood with few residents with qualifications would be expected to have a relatively low employment rate, because national analyses show qualifications to be associated with employment. If the local outcome is different from the expectation, this is the neighbourhood effect.

Neighbourhood effects are highlighted in the website’s neighbourhood profiles by ‘smileys’:

A green smiley shows a better outcome than expected.
A red smiley shows a worse outcome than expected.

The calculation of neighbourhood effects is described in the full report, section 2.4.8. The detailed computation makes use of a commissioned 2001 census table and Iterative Proportional Fitting in five dimensions. The methods are described in a technical report, Estimating local populations at risk, and expected employment outcomes.

In a separate working paper, Jobs deficits, neighbourhood effects and ethnic penalties, neighbourhood effects are used to define ‘jobs deficits’ for each ethnic group. The working paper shows that inequality between ethnic groups is repeated throughout England and Wales. For each ethnic group this inequality accounts for most neighbourhood differences with the national employment rate.