Pak women more vulnerable in labour market: ILO

Islamabad, Jan 25 : The International Labour Organization (ILO) has said that labour market vulnerability for female workers in Pakistan has increased, while it has decreased for their male counterparts.

According to ILO's annual Global Employment Trends report (GET), vulnerability decreased by 5.0 percentage points for males but increased by 6.5 points for females.

Commenting on the report, an ILO official said: "This shows once again that labour market policies must be at the centre of macroeconomic policies to ensure that economic growth is inclusive and that development involves good work".

"The current economic situation is, therefore, a cause for significant concern and the ILO will monitor developments closely over the coming year," he added.

Women constitute about 20 per cent of Pakistan's labour force with 8.4 per cent are participating in civilian labour force.

The reason behind their upward tendency is an increase in the number of female contributing family workers.

A breakdown by economic sector demonstrates that vulnerability is often reduced in sectors leading recent employment growth, such as manufacturing, trade and construction.

However, given the nature of this sector, with the lowest rate of illiteracy of all economic sectors, this increase is unlikely to reflect a growing decent work deficit.

It said South Asia was the leader in jobs growth during 2007, contributing 28 per cent of the nearly 45 million jobs created during the year worldwide.

ANI