Data from the International Labour Organization (ILO) indicates that women in low-income countries are being affected more with the problem of joblessness.
(Epicstorian)- The Director-General of International Labour Organization (ILO), Gilbert F. Houngbo, has argued against rising inequalities in the world labour market, where a great number of women, especially in the less developed countries (LDC’s), are disproportionately affected.
Houngbo raised this concern amid ILO’s new projections indicating a moderate fall in global unemployment rates this year.
According to a report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) women in low-income countries are being affected more with the problem of joblessness.
The ILO’s May 2024 report on World Employment and Social Outlook forecasts that the 2024 global unemployment rate will stand at 4.9 per cent, down from 5.0 per cent in 2023.
The report shows a downward revisal of the previous ILO projection of 5.2 per cent for this year, upholding optimism for downward trend in joblessness to flatten in 2025, with unemployment remaining at 4.9 per cent.
While the outlook appears hopeful, the report points out a worrisome concern for lack of employment opportunities, especially for women in the Labour market.
402 million persons, according to ILO unemployment gap’s estimation, are without jobs in 2024: Job gap measures the number of unemployed persons who are willing to work but can’t get jobs.
The forecast also includes 183 million members of the global population who are counted as unemployed, and this particularly affects women more than their male counterparts.
“Today’s report reveals critical employment challenges that we must still address. Despite our efforts to reduce global inequalities, the labour market remains an uneven playing field, especially for women,” said the ILO Director-General, Gilbert F. Houngbo.
“To achieve a sustainable recovery whose benefits are shared by all, we must work towards inclusive policies that take into consideration the needs of all workers.
“We must place inclusion and social justice at the core of our policies and institutions. Unless we do we will fall short of our objective to ensure strong and inclusive development.”
Some extrapolated figures from the report show that women, especially in poor countries, lack access to job opportunities.
This indicates that, for women in less developed countries, 22.8 per cent of them are unemployed but are willing to work compared to a 15.3 per cent of this estimated job gap for men.
However, there is noticable contrasts as to the data applying to high-income nations, where the rate is slightly lower at 9.7 per cent for women and 7.3 per cent for the male job seekers.
There is deducible evidence that more women are absent in the global labour market, with the report pointing the cause of this difference in men and women unemployment rates to family responsibilities, where 45.6 percent of working-age women are employed in 2024 as against 69.2 per cent of men.
While women in poor countries earn even far less than men in the same job, in high-income countries they “earn seventy-three cents compared to a dollar earned by men”.
In low income countries women earn $.40 compared to a dollar earned by men, which shows that this figure drops as opposed to the $.73 cents earned by women in high-income countries.
The report finds that, despite the 2015 adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development goals, concerted efforts and progress in reducing poverty and informality have slowed down compared to past years results.
The informal sectors have an approximated number of 1.7 billion workers, which is a striking rise in the figure from 2005 to 2024.
The report suggests that “exhaustive approach” to reducing poverty and inequality, especially in the global labour market is urgently needed in order to achieve the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals set for 2030 global economic prosperity.
