Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, has expressed concern about what she considers to be the government's failure to fight institutional racism in the workforce.

Her comments came after a government survey revealed 48 per cent of young black people aged 16 to 24 are unemployed, more than double the amount of white youngsters. The survey also found that ethnic groups had been hardest hit by the recession, with unemployment rising from 21 per cent in March 2008 to 35 per cent in November 2009.

The news comes as official figures released on 20 January by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) showed a drop in unemployment across the UK, including 16 to 24 year olds, in the three month period to November 2009. However, figures in London actually showed a rise in unemployment, the highest across the country with 20,000 more people out of work.

Diane says the government's pledge last year to shield ethnic minorities from the recession by targeting support at disadvantaged groups had clearly not been effective. She said: 'This situation is very troubling. A number of surveys over the years have revealed that Black and Muslim young men are disproportionately employed, even when they have comparable qualifications. There are a number of things that the government could do to address these issues, and it is not too late. In particular the government could address this disproportionately low number of people from the Olympic boroughs working on the Olympic Park. In my constituency, Hackney, only 2 per cent of the 6,277 people working on the Olympic Park have Hackney addresses and we know that many of these people may not be permanent residents of the borough. Because boroughs like mine have such high ethnic minority communities, if the government did more to drive local employment on the Olympic Park, this would go a long way to alleviate the structural unemployment which young black men continue to suffer from.'