Workforce

The contribution of informal labourers is immense. Informal labour is expanding globally, most significantly in developing countries.[6] According to a study done by Jacques Charmes, in the year 2000 informal labour made up 57% of non-agricultural employment, 40% of urban employment, and 83% of the new jobs in Latin America. That same year, informal labour made up 78% of non-agricultural employment, 61% of urban employment, and 93% of the new jobs in Africa.[7] Particularly after an economic crisis, labourers tend to shift from the formal sector to the informal sector. This trend was seen after the Asian economic crisis which began in 1997.[6]

Gender is frequently associated with informal labour. Women are employed more often informally than they are formally, and informal labour is an overall larger source of employment for females than it is for males.[5] Women frequent the informal sector of the economy through occupations like home-based workers and street vendors.[6] The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World shows that in the 1990s, 81% of women in Benin were street vendors, 55% in Guatemala, 44% in Mexico, 33% in Kenya, and 14% in India. Overall, 60% of women workers in the developing world are employed in the informal sector.[1]

The specific percentages are 84% and 58% for women in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America respectively.[1] The percentages for men in both of these areas of the world are lower, amounting to 63% and 48% respectively.[1] In Asia, 65% of women workers and 65% of men workers are employed in the informal sector.[1] Globally, a large percentage of women that are formally employed also work in the informal sector behind the scenes. These women make up the hidden work force.[1]

The agricultural sector of the economy has remained stable in recent years.[9] According to the Penguin Atlas of Women in the World, women make up 40% of the agricultural labour force in most parts of the world, while in developing countries they make up 67% of the agricultural workforce.[1] Joni Seager shows in her atlas that specific tasks within agricultural work are also gendered. For example, for the production of wheat in a village in Northwest China, men perform the ploughing, the planting, and the spraying, while women perform the weeding, the fertilising, the processing, and the storage.[1]

In terms of food production worldwide, the atlas shows that women produce 80% of the food in Sub-Saharan Africa, 50% in Asia, 45% in the Caribbean, 25% in North Africa and in the Middle East, and 25% in Latin America.[1] A majority of the work women do on the farm is considered housework and is therefore negligible in employment statistics.[1]

Women usually work fewer hours in income generating jobs than men do.[5] Often it is housework that is unpaid. Worldwide, women and girls are responsible for a great amount of household work.[1]

The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World, published in 2008, stated that in Madagascar, women spend 20 hours per week on housework, while men spend only two.[1] In Mexico, women spend 33 hours and men spend 5 hours.[1] In Mongolia the housework hours amount to 27 and 12 for women and men respectively.[1] In Spain, women spend 26 hours on housework and men spend 4 hours.[1] Only in the Netherlands do men spend 10% more time than women do on activities within the home or for the household.[1]

The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World also stated that in developing countries, women and girls spend a significant amount of time fetching water for the week, while men do not. For example, in Malawi women spend 6.3 hours per week fetching water, while men spend 43 minutes. Girls in Malawi spend 3.3 hours per week fetching water, and boys spend 1.1 hours.[1] Even if women and men both spend time on household work and other unpaid activities, this work is also gendered.[5]

In the United Kingdom in 2014, two-thirds of workers on long-term sick leave were women, despite women only constituting half of the workforce, even after excluding maternity leave.[10]

Unemployment is defined as the number of able men and women of working age seeking employment. When unemployment percentages are shown it does not categorize all men and women who are out of work. It only accounts for the men and women who are actively seeking employment. To those who are no longer looking for work they are simply categorized as "out of the workforce". As of February 2018 the unemployment rate for the United States was 4.1%. The below is a list of unemployment rates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics since 2000.

As of 2010 in the United States, 123 million women age 16 years and over have worked in the U.S., 72 million, or 58.6 percent, were working or looking for work. Women are projected to account for 51% of the increase in total labor force growth between 2008 and 2018. As of 2010 Women make up 47% of the total U.S. labor force. 66 million women were employed in the U.S. 73% of employed women worked on full-time jobs, while the remainder 27% worked part-time. The different career paths women work in were: 40.6% management, professional, and related occupations, 32% worked in sales and office occupations, 21.3% in service occupations, 5.2% in production, transportation, and material moving occupations, and 0.9% in natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations. The largest percentage of employed Asian 46.1%, white 40.6%, and black women 33.8%. Hispanic women showed their strongest attachment to service occupations at 33.2%. The unemployment rate for women was 8.6%. Among female race/ethnic groups, Asian women continue to have the lowest unemployment rate of 7.5%. For white women, it was 7.7%, Hispanic women 12.3%, and black women, 13.8 percent.[13]