Women and Men in the Caribbean Community

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Women and Men in the Caribbean CommunityUnemploymentYouth in the Labour MarketAlmost Equal Representation of Young Women and Men in the Labour MarketThe youth, (aged 15-24 years), are a large and growing segment of the national populationsand their employment presents a challenge to many governments. They form, on average,about 20 per cent of the total population (table 1.6 see page 15), and currently comprise about20 to 30 per cent of the economically active, both women and men (aged 15 years and over).There is a higher share of the youth in the labour market than in the general population, andthis is equally true for women as for men. Moreover, the youths' share among economicallyactive women and men is about the same for all the eight countries with available data in theyear 2000. Their share in the labour force has, however, been declining over the last twodecades (table 5.8).Table 5.8 Share of 15-24 year olds in the labour force, 1980, 1990 and 2000Source: Compiled from Key Indicatorsof the Labour Market 2001-2002, KILMCD-ROM, KILM 14. InternationalLabour Office, Geneva: 2002.1980 1990 2000Country Women Men Women Men Women MenAntigua and Barbuda … … 19 21 … …The Bahamas 32 31 24 25 19 20Barbados 27 28 25 26 17 18Belize 54 39 42 35 31 29Dominica 39 38 33 34 … …Grenada … … 33 30 24 24Guyana 42 37 30 31 25 26Jamaica 13 14 20 18 19 17Montserrat 36 32 … … … …St. Kitts and Nevis 43 37 25 26 … …Saint Lucia … … 31 30 … …St. Vincent and the Grenadines … … 29 30 … …Suriname 23 22 23 20 20 24Trinidad and Tobago 33 30 25 24 23 22In 1980, the youth formed 13 (Jamaica) to 54 (Belize) per cent of the economically activewomen, and 14 (Jamaica) to 39 (Belize) per cent of the men. The share of youth was alsoalmost the same for women and men then, except in three countries where the shares werehigher for women than men: St. Kitts and Nevis (43 per cent for women compared to 37 percent for men), Guyana (42 compared to 37 per cent, respectively) and Belize (54 comparedto 39 per cent, respectively) with the gap between women and men for Trinidad and Tobagoand Montserrat being approximately three to 4 per cent. In 1990, the range between the lowestand highest shares of youth in the labour force narrowed to 19 to 42 per cent for womenand 18 to 35 per cent for men, the shares having declined in all countries except Jamaica,where they increased to 20 and 18 per cent for women and men, respectively.In 1990, the share of youth in the labour force was about the same for both women and men,with Belize being the only exception: 42 per cent of the female labour force is young, comparedto 35 per cent of the male labour force. By the year 2000, the share of youth in thelabour force declined to between 17 and 31 per cent for women, and 17 to 29 per cent for men(table 5.8).92
Chapter 5: WORKYouth UnemploymentYoung Women Worse Off than Male Counterparts in Job SearchThe youth are particularly disadvantaged in the search for jobs, since they enter an everchangingjob market with little or no prior experience. Youth unemployment rates in the late1990s (or around 2000) were more than 20 per cent in most countries, and for women therates were particularly high. Unemployment rates for young women were also higher than therates for young men in the early 1990s, in some countries by a quarter (e.g., Trinidad andTobago, 43 per cent for women and 33 per cent for men); and in some, young women’s ratewas about twice the rate for men (e.g., 43 per cent compared with 20 per cent, respectively,in Jamaica). The exceptions were in Grenada, where youth unemployment rates were aboutequal for women and men (27 and 28 per cent, respectively), and in The Bahamas, where theyoung women’s unemployment rate was only 4 percentage points higher than their malecounterparts (26 and 22 per cent, respectively). The changes in unemployment rates of theyouth reduced the range of variation between countries in both young women’s and youngmen’s rates, but more for men than for women (table 5.9).Table 5.9 Youth and adult unemployment, selected countries, 1990sYouth unemployment rateProportion of youth in totalunemployment1990/1994 1997/19991990/19941997/1999Country Women Men Women Men Women Men Women MenAntigua and Barbuda … … … … 50 46 … …The Bahamas 26 22 22 11 40 44 41 38Barbados 41 22 27 18 49 55 34 42Belize … … 35 15 56 54 54 48Dominica … … 46 36 … … 36 45Grenada 27 28 … … 49 45 … …Guyana 38 21 … … 62 72 … …Jamaica 43 20 46 24 54 60 50 58Saint Lucia 35 23 52 38 50 54 46 54St. Vincent and the Grenadines 43 33 … … 57 54 … …Suriname 46 29 45 13 53 46 45 36Trinidad and Tobago 43 33 31 22 44 45 42 44Source: Compiled from KeyIndicators of the Labour Market2001-2002, KILM 9. InternationalLabour Office, Geneva: 2002.In the late 1990s, young women’s unemployment ranged from 22 to 52 per cent, while therates for men were between 11 to 38 per cent (in both cases for The Bahamas and Saint Lucia,respectively). In the early 1990s, the unemployment rates for young women ranged from 26per cent (The Bahamas) to 46 per cent (Suriname); and for young men, from 20 per cent(Jamaica) to 33 per cent (St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago).The unemployment rates declined for both young women and men towards the end of the1990s (i.e., 1997/1999), except in Jamaica and Saint Lucia, where the rates increased slightlyfor both women and men. In some countries the improvements favoured men more thanwomen, such as in The Bahamas and Suriname—the rates for men were cut in half but therates for women declined only marginally. Similarly, for Trinidad and Tobago, the rate for menfell by a third (33 to 22 per cent) but by a quarter for women (43 to 31 per cent).93
Page 1 and 2:
Caribbean Community SecretariatStat
Page 3 and 4:
PrefaceThis report, Women and Men i
Page 5 and 6:
Sources of Data for the ReportThe P
Page 7:
SOURCES OF DATAEducationData on gro
Page 10 and 11:
Women and Men in the Caribbean Comm
Page 12 and 13:
Page 14 and 15:
Page 16 and 17:
Page 18 and 19:
Page 20 and 21:
Page 22 and 23:
Page 24 and 25:
Page 26 and 27:
Page 28 and 29:
Page 30 and 31:
Page 32 and 33:
Page 34 and 35:
Page 36 and 37:
Page 38 and 39:
Page 40 and 41:
Page 42 and 43:
Page 44 and 45:
Page 46 and 47:
Page 48 and 49:
Page 50 and 51:
Page 52 and 53:
Page 54 and 55:
Page 56 and 57:
Page 58 and 59:
Page 60 and 61:
Page 62 and 63: Women and Men in the Caribbean Comm
Page 160: Women and Men in the Caribbean Comm
show all

Women and Men in the Caribbean Community

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?