Women at work: Females dominate Zim employment

Source: Women at work: Females dominate Zim employment | The Financial Gazette August 24, 2017

By Staff Reporter

THERE are more women than men working in Zimbabwe, official statistics show.

Zimbabwean women make up 51 percent of the country’s total workforce, dominating jobs in agriculture, health and education as well as wholesale and retail trade, according to a report by the official statistics agency.

The report, titled: Understanding Equality in Zimbabwe: Women and Men Report 2016 produced by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) highlights the increasing role of female entreprenuers in the country’s increasingly informalised economy.

Zimstat’s 2014 Labour Force Survey estimated that females made up 52 percent of the population of Zimbabwe at 13 447 286. The statistics agency, criticised for its broad definition of employment, which includes the burgeoning informal sector, puts Zimbabwe’s unemployment rate at about 11 percent.
Independent analysts, using stricter criteria for gauging employment, contend the country’s jobless rate is over 90 percent.

The Zimstat 2016 report shows that women make up 54 percent of the workforce in the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sector, 62,1 percent of the wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles. Women also dominate education (57 percent), health and social welfare work (64,2 percent).
Female dominance also extends to categories defined as ‘other service activities’ (57,6 percent) and ‘activities of households’ with 79,5 percent.

Men are dominant in mining (89,2 percent), construction (96,5 percent), public administration and defence (73,6 percent), manufacturing (77,5 percent), finance and insurance (65 percent) as well as transport and storage (91,2 percent). There is near parity in the accommodation and food service segment.

However, men dominate the non-farm job market, accounting for 63,3 percent of the employment. Women, on the other hand, account for 52 percent of informal jobs, which Zimstat puts at 859 060.