The Hindu Business Line : ‘Growth in employment of women higher than men’

According to the data available with the Ministry of Labour, the annual rate of growth in employment between 1999-2000 and 2004-05 stood at 3.9 per cent for women against 2.51 per cent for men.

Incidentally, this entire growth has been in the private sector. The data available shows that the number of employees in the public sector declined during this period from 27.96 million in 1999-2000 to 26.49 million in 2004-2005, marking a reduction of 1.47 million.

On the other hand, the total number of employment during this period has gone up from 397 million in 1999-2000 to 459 million in 1999-2000. This, according to Labour Ministry officials suggest that the entire 62 million new jobs have been created in the private sector, which has also taken care of the reduction in the number of employment in the public sector.

New opportunities

According to Mr Manish Shabarwal, Chairman of Teamlease, one of the largest private sector employer in the country, this is because economic reforms have created new kind of opportunities and jobs that make it easier for women to participate in the labour force. Also, increase in flexibility is a reason that attracts women.

Earlier, working women moving out of the labour market between the age of 30 to 40 was very high and that too has come down, he said.

“The higher rate of growth in employment among women compared to men could also reflect the lower rate of child break thereby indicating that probably working women are having child late or the jobs provide the required flexibility where they could stay on in the labour market.”

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