For women in Asia, poor quality of jobs is a greater labour market challenge than unemployment.

Despite economic growth, a large proportion of women in the region do low-productivity, vulnerable and low-paid informal work.

Also, young females face high unemployment and women are still largely perceived as a buffer workforce or secondary earners next to men.

This has been brought out in a new report ‘Women and Labour Markets in Asia: Rebalancing for Gender Equality'.

The report, released on Friday, was brought out jointly by the International Labour Organisation and Asian Development Bank.

The report found that 45 per cent of the productive potential of women in Asia was untapped, compared to just 19 per cent for Asian men.

Although Asia's economic growth of 6.2 per cent in 2000-07 exceeded the global average of 4.2 per cent, average growth in women's employment was just 1.7 per cent – below the world average of 2 per cent, it said.

Pointing out the window of opportunity for Asian countries, the report called for adoption of a “smart policy” to promote gender equality in labour markets. This will not only help reduce poverty but also achieve the Millennium Development Goals of social justice, it added.

“The drive to rebalance towards more sustainable, fairer development must not distract policy-makers from dealing with ingrained gender inequalities. One cannot succeed without the other and the social and economic costs of missing this opportunity will be felt for decades,” Ms Sachiko Yamamoto, ILO Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, was quoted as saying.

Some policy measures suggested were support for women entrepreneurs, assisting women working in agriculture to boost productivity; reducing Asia's over-reliance on the informal sector; promoting equal access to quality education and training; ensuring equality in representation and decision-making, etc.

The report was released to mark Labour Day (May 1) and the Centenary of International Women's Day (March 8).

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