SANTIAGO, Chile (CMC) – A new study shows there’s a narrowing of the gender gaps in the labour market that is crucial for growth, equality and poverty reduction in the region.

The study was undertaken by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The report of the study, titled “Employment Situation in Latin America and the Caribbean,” indicates that women’s access to paid activities is “essential” for achieving the UN’s 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

According to the study, a large increase in women’s participation in paid activities is among the most important trends seen in the regional labour market.

“The region has made progress on many of the factors that have a positive impact on the decision to participate in the labour market, such as equal access to education, a decline in the fertility rate, greater levels of average income and of access to technologies that reduce the amount of time needed to carry out domestic tasks and improve reproductive health services,” said Alicia Bárcena, ECLAC’s Executive Secretary, and Juan Felipe Hunt, the ILO’s acting Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, in the foreword of the document.

They said progress has also been achieved in terms of political rights and social norms.

“However, some areas that could limit the growth of labour participation are still lagging. These include gender gaps regarding expected educational achievement and cultural aspects that promote women’s reproductive and care giving role.”

In addition, the study indicates that the incorporation of new technologies could produce an increase in women’s participation in paid activities.

Nevertheless, it warns that greater participation does not necessarily entail greater quality of employment or quality of life, and it stresses that policies to avoid the deepening of labour precariousness and excessive workloads must be adopted in order to ensure that current gender gaps do not widen.

The study also examines the labour market’s performance during the first half of 2019. It found that regional urban unemployment rate held steady versus the same period of 2018, reaching 10.1 per cent on average for the countries analysed.

It noted that the low economic growth recorded in the first half of the year affected job creation as well as labour conditions.

On the one hand, self-employment, which is generally of lower quality, continued growing more than salaried jobs during that period, the study notes, adding that the concentration of jobs in service sectors held firm as a trend, while growth in industrial employment since 2017 has been wearing thin and decelerating.

The study states that, in 2019, the sectors and categories that tend to create better-quality jobs are losing ground against sectors in which the creation of jobs with more informal labour conditions prevails.

In addition, the study notes the average real wages of registered employment and real minimum wages are growing at a lower rate than in previous years.

Given the moderate expectations for economic growth in 2019 both at a global and regional level, the report forecasts that the year will end with a slight increase in regional unemployment rates, which are seen at around 9.4 per cent for urban areas, compared with the 9.3 per cent recorded in 2018.