The research, by the Resolution Foundation, looks at unemployment rates among economically active young people before and during the health crisis.
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It found that existing inequalities based on ethnicity in 2019 have worsened amid the pandemic.
During the second half of 2020 more than one in three (34 per cent) black young people aged 16-24 were out of work, up nine percentage points on the same period the previous year.
Meanwhile, the proportion of their white peers who were unemployed was 13 per cent during the second half of 2020, up three percentage points on 2019’s figure for the same period.
In addition, the research found that almost one in four (24 per cent) young Asian people were out of work over in the last two quarters of 2020, up three percentage points on 2019’s figures.
“The stark ethnicity-based inequalities highlighted in this report make clear that, even among young people with the same level of education, labour market outcomes are highly unevenly distributed by ethnic background,” states the Uneven Steps report.
“Policy makers, employers and educators need to take this seriously. This includes encouraging firms to investigate these inequalities within their own workforce.
“But it also includes working with educators, employment support providers and, especially, employers, to rigorously identify where their support, recruitment and progression practices generate – or exacerbate – bias and discrimination, and put into place concrete steps for changing course,” it adds.
The report points out that young people have been disproportionately impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic compared to older workers. It found that 57 per cent of unemployed people are aged 16-24 year olds.
“Moreover, the crisis has not just been characterised by young people losing their jobs, but also by recent education leavers struggling to find their first job,” states the report.
It points out that between 2019 and 2020 the unemployment rate among graduates and non-graduates who had left full-time education within the previous year rose four percentage points to 18 per cent.
“As we come out of the crisis, policy makers should reflect on the price younger generations have paid for the country’s collective need to put restrictions in place in order to slow the spread of the virus, and ultimately save lives,” added the Foundation.
Last month it emerged that more young men are listed as not in education, employment or training (NEET) than at any time since 2013. The government figures also showed that mental health problems are a major factor in young people who become NEET.
