Employmentweb_low

EmpLoymEnT, work, And HEALTH inEquALiTiES - a global perspective
workers of pT Toshiba Consumer products
ind. Assembling and manufacturing of
electronic goods, such as television sets.
Cikarang, Bekasi (indonesia).
source: © ilo/a. mirza (2008)
like countries, not all workers have the same types of
contracts or exposure to occupational hazards. Existing data
shows that health inequalities by social class are significantly
large. Studies need to consider the key role played by the crosscutting
axes (e.g., social class, gender, race, ethnicity, and
migrant status) analysed in this book. By and large, in the EU
workers with a higher level of education are more likely to hold
an indefinite employment contract: 83 per cent of those with a
tertiary education hold an indefinite term contract, as compared
to 66 per cent of those with only primary level education. Slightly
more men (79%) than women (76%) hold an indefinite-term
contract. lower-than-average percentages of unskilled workers
and skilled agricultural workers hold indefinite-term contracts
(65% and 58% respectively) (Parent-Thirion et al., 2007).
research has also shown that when occupational social classes
have less skills and credentials, they tend to experience
hazardous working conditions, including physical strain, low job
control, greater noise and air pollution, shift work, a
monotonous job, and a hectic work pace, as well as worse selfreported
health and a large number of health outcomes
(Vahtera, Virtanen, Kivimäki, & Pentti, 1999; Schrijvers, Van de
Mheen, Stronks, & Mackenbach, 1998; Siegrist & Marmot, 2004).
Worldwide, more women than ever are participating in labour
markets, either in work or actively looking for a job. However,
during the last decade, the gender gap in the labour force
participation rate (i.e, the share of working-age women who work
or are seeking work) stopped closing, with many regions
registering declines. The female share of total employment stayed
almost unchanged at 40 per cent in 2006 (from 39.7% 10 years
ago). In 2007, only 52.5 per cent of all women of working age were
either looking for work or working (IlO, 2008).
Gender segregation is a phenomenon in which women are
under-represented in some occupational areas and
overrepresented in others (relative to their average
representation in employment overall). Many studies have
revealed that a high degree of gender segregation is a persistent
feature of the structure of employment. Segregation can take
place across various employment variables: occupation, sector,
economic status of the firm, employment status, or employment
contract and form (full-time/part-time work). Women are more
likely to work in low-productivity jobs in agriculture and services.
The poorer the region, the greater the likelihood that women's
work remains uncompensated. The step from unpaid contributing
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