Women surpassing men for jobs
Women are entering the formal job market at nearly twice the pace of men. This according to the latest data from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN).
“It is a trend that we are seeing,” said Dr Natalee Simpson, the director of surveys at STATIN, during the agency’s quarterly press briefing last week.
Some 18,600 women entered the labour market, according to the last quarterly survey for October 2019, compared to the 10,600 men that entered over the same period. Concurrently, the number of unemployed females declined by 16,000 persons while the number of males decreased by 3,000 persons.
However, men still outnumber women in the labour force at 682,800 compared to 565,600 women. But the agency declined to comment on whether it forecasts that women will eventually outnumber men in the workforce.
Over the past year, females were the preferred gender for filling vacancies for clerical workers, the fastest growing area of work. STATIN said during the period October 2018 to October 2019, some 17,700 clerical positions were filled and that females accounted for two-thirds of those spots.
The pattern of women in the job market aligns with global trends.
In December 2019, for example, the 2020 Global Gender Gap report produced by the World Economic Forum, a non-aligned think tank based in Switzerland, indicated that more women were entering the workforce both locally and internationally.
However, it also indicated that men still earn more than women on average.
It anticipates the pay gap in most nations to be eliminated in 100 years.