According to this study, 15% of women who are of working age in the world would like to work, but are unemployed, compared to 10.5% of men.
Inequalities between women and men in the world of work are “more important than previously thought”. This is the conclusion drawn by a report (PDF document in English) of the International Labor Organization (ILO), published on Monday 6 March, two days before International Women’s Day. The United Nations agency emphasizes “the imbalances” at a time “in access to employment” And “labor conditions”, “especially in developing countries”. The ILO also deplores too slow progress.
To reach this conclusion, the UN agency has developed a new indicator: the job deficit, which takes into account “all unemployed people who want to find one”. Using this tool, the UN compiles “a much bleaker picture of the situation of women in the world of work than the more commonly used unemployment rate”. Access to employment, differences between regions, wage inequalities… Here are four things to take away from this new study.
1 A higher than expected gap in access to employment
“New data shows that women still have a much harder time finding jobs than men,” emphasizes the UN, based on this new indicator of the job deficit. The ILO recalls that a person is considered to be a job seeker if they have recently looked for work, and if they are available to start a new job quickly.
However, women cannot meet these conditions and therefore be considered as job seekers, “because of their disproportionate involvement” in domestic chores, childcare and helping relatives – unpaid work, points out the ILO. For example, some women are available for work, but lack the time to actively seek employment, which excludes them from official unemployment statistics.
By taking into account these barriers to women’s access to employment, the agency has managed to “much higher estimates of labor underutilization”, and the gap between women and men in the world of work. Overall, 15% of women who are of working age globally would like to work but are unemployed, compared to 10.5% of men. “This gender gap has remained virtually unchanged for two decades,” between 2005 and 2022, notes the ILO.
2 Wider gaps in poorer regions
This global jobs gap varies significantly by country income level. Overall, it increases “as national income decreases”, “as does the gap between women and men”. In developed countries with high income levels, 9.6% of women would like to work but are unemployed, compared to 7.4% of men. In lower-middle-income countries – a World Bank classification – 17.4% of women fail to access employment, compared to 11% of men.
The worst jobs deficit is observed in low-income countries. In these states, the share of women who want to work but do not have a job reaches 24.9%, against 16.6% for men.
3 “Worrying” results on wage disparities
These differences according to country income levels are also reflected in wage inequalities between women and men. On this point, the International Labor Organization warns of the results “worrying” of his research. In 2019, when a man earned a dollar in labor income, a woman earned an average of 51 cents worldwide. In low-income countries, women earn on average 33 cents for every dollar earned by men. The gap is even worse in states with lower middle incomes: women’s labor income is 29 cents for every dollar earned by men. These disparities are less significant in high-income countries, but nevertheless remain very high: women earn 58 cents against one dollar for men.
To understand this “striking disparity” between women’s and men’s labor income, the ILO explains in particular that “women tend to be overrepresented in certain types of vulnerable employment”. “For example, women are more likely to help their household or the business of loved ones than to be self-employed. This vulnerability, coupled with lower employment rates, has implications for women’s earnings .”
4 Maternity, “factor of lower participation” in the labor market
Having children and raising them remains “a major factor that reduces the participation of women in the labor market in the world”, regrets the ILO in this new study. Among those aged 25-54, the gap between women and men in labor market participation was 29.2 percentage points last year. But this gap rises to 42.6 percentage points for 25-54 year olds with at least one child under the age of six. In this group, the participation of women is 53.1%, against 95.7% for men.
Again, there are significant variations across country income levels. In upper-middle-income states, mothers participate almost 20% less than average in the labor market among 25-54 year olds. This disparity is much lower in lower-middle-income countries (4.3%) and in low-income countries (5.4%).