Job gap shows much worse situation for women, says ILO report

New index reveals disparity masked by unemployment data; gender gap in jobseeking shows wider difference in earnings

A noticeably higher proportion of women than men would like to work but don’t have a job, a global disparity that has barely budged in a new index dating back in 2005. 

A new indicator developed by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Jobs Gap, captures all persons without employment that are interested in finding a job. It paints a much bleaker picture of the situation of women in the world of work than the more commonly used unemployment rate. The new data shows that women still have a much harder time finding a job than men.

The so-called gender gap revealed by the gauge shows 15 per cent of female working-age would-be employees in that category, compared with 10.5 per cent for their male counterparts, according to a report by the ILO published on Monday.

The shortfall leaves an even more exaggerated effect on wages: women earn only 51 cents for each dollar of labor income generated by men, the Geneva-based researchers wrote in the study. That disparity is worse in poorer countries, falling to 29 cents in the lower-middle income category. The tally in the richest nations is 58 cents per dollar earned by men.

It pointed out that personal and family responsibilities, including unpaid care work, disproportionately affects women.

Such activities, it said, not only often prevent women from working, but also from actively searching for employment or being available to work on short notice, which are criteria for being considered unemployed.

 The analysis reveals differences that are masked by conventional measures of unemployment, which normally only include people recently seeking work with the availability to take up a job. That categorisation excludes many women disproportionately burdened by unpaid care work, for example for children. 

“Gender imbalances in access to employment and working conditions are greater than previously thought, and progress in reducing them has been disappointingly slow in the last two decades,” the ILO said in a press release. “The new data shows that women still have a much harder time finding a job than men.”

The new estimates shine light on the magnitude of gender disparities in labour markets, underscoring how important it is to improve women’s overall participation in employment, to expand their access to employment across occupations, and to address the glaring gaps in job quality that women face.