Ethnic graduates not represented - graduate jobs

Graduates from ethnic minority backgrounds are still not being proportionally represented in the workplace, according to a new report.

A study by Business in the Community found that although more than one in 10 of the British population comes from an ethnic minority group, just one in 15 were in a management position at the end of 2007.

In general, ethnic minorities were not gaining the share of jobs their population would justify, but the gap between the total ethnic minority population and those in management positions was even greater, the study said.

Sandra Kerr of the group's Race for Opportunity campaign said: "Barack Obama won the most high profile management post in the world with the slogan: Yes, We Can. The evidence we have found from this research is that without major and urgent policy intervention or action from businesses, the message to ethnic minorities aspiring to management in the UK is: No, You Won't.

"The disappointing implication is that there may still be a colour bar to management jobs in the UK 33 years after the passing of the landmark Race Relations Act of 1976."