Why women's unemployment continues to rise

Ground Report | New Delhi: Why women's unemployment; Every year, the International Labor Organization (ILO) publishes an official World Employment and Social Outlook Report, which is used by the United Nations, governments, and civil society organizations to understand global labor patterns through in-depth data.

The findings of this year's report are particularly worrying for ILO experts. Job losses in 2020 were significant, and employment still hasn't returned to pre-pandemic levels. They also found that the recovery so far has been uneven, with women worse off than men:

Male employment has mostly reached pre-pandemic levels, but total global female employment is 13 million less than in 2019.

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Why women's unemployment rise

Since 2019, an additional 73 million women have left the labor force and are not looking for jobs – whether they lack opportunities, lack time due to the increasing burden of care, or lack of hope.

The Bain & Company-Google report cites a 2019 study by the Washington-based Women's Policy Research Institute as saying, "Women hold the majority of administrative and data-processing roles, which threatens to usurp artificial intelligence and other technologies." Huh." "As regular jobs become automated, the pressure on women will intensify and they will experience higher unemployment rates."

Furthermore, women who are actively participating in the workforce are 2.9 times more likely than men to be unemployed.

Creating employment opportunities is the need of the hour. However, encouraging more women to become entrepreneurs would provide a long-term solution. "Entrepreneurship among women can transform India's economy and society by creating jobs, spurring innovation, and spurring investment in health and education," the report said.

There were 81 million more women and 73 million more men in inactivity in 2020 than in 2019. Part of this discrepancy is that women shifted most of their time to family care. It's work, and it's very important to households, but it's unpaid and doesn't count in employment figures. Some of them have withdrawn from the labor force.

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Employment of women declined by 5%

Starting with the bigger picture, global working hours fell in 2020 for both men and women. There was a loss equivalent to 255 million full-time jobs, which is quite significant. But the crisis has adversely affected women. Employment of women declined by 5% compared to 3.9% for men. We had very optimistic trends before this pandemic, but these are clearly setbacks.

As COVID-19 increases the time women spend on family responsibilities disproportionately – an estimated 30 percent in India, according to a survey

Traditionally, the term "unemployed" has included people looking for jobs that are available to work. It is about demand and supply tension. "Inaction" generally means people who are not looking for work for pay or profit and are not - are assumed to be. There are people who are not looking for work but willing to work. And also people who are not available now but would have if they had the chance. This is what happened in the pandemic. If there is a lockdown and everything is closed then you cannot look for work.

Unemployment will increase by 2 million this year

Compared to 2019, an additional 108 million workers fell into poverty, joining the working poor who live on the equivalent of less than US$3.20 per day. It is not surprising that we are seeing increasing inequalities between old versus young, between men and women, within countries, across regions. These inequalities are harmful to our society.

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