Northern Ireland: unemployment by religious background and gender 1971-1987

In Northern Ireland in the 1960s, widespread inequalities between the Catholic and Protestant communities led to a civil rights campaign, which later developed into a 30-year conflict known as the Troubles. Although Protestants made up around two-thirds of the north's population, they also had disproportionate control of the government and economy. As a result, the unemployment rate among Catholics was around 2.5 times higher than that of Protestants in the early-70s. As the conflict developed, high unemployment among young Catholic men in particular was a major factor in the growth of Republican paramilitary organizations such as the Irish Republican Army. The Fair Employment Act of 1976 sought to undo this inequality by promoting equal opportunities and prohibiting religious discrimination; however, unemployment grew even higher in the 1980s, with over a third of Catholic men unemployed by 1987.

在20世纪60年代的北爱尔兰，天主教会与基督教新教社区之间普遍存在的差异导致了民权运动的兴起，随后这一运动演变成了一场长达30年的冲突，史称“ Troubles”。尽管新教徒占据了该地区三分之二的人口比例，但他们却对政府和经济有着不成比例的控制权。因此，在70年代初，天主教徒的失业率比新教徒高约2.5倍。随着冲突的加剧，尤其是年轻天主教男性中的高失业率成为了爱尔兰共和军等共和派准军事组织增长的主要因素。1976年的公平就业法案旨在通过促进平等机会和禁止宗教歧视来消除这种不平等；然而，到了80年代，失业率反而进一步上升，到1987年，超过三分之一的男性天主教徒失业。