Unemployment affects women more than men

Addressing an event organised by a Business and Professional Women Association on the subject of women and unemployment, Charalambous explained that in the beginning of the crisis men were affected more than women did by unemployment, adding this is mainly due to the fact that the sectors hit harder by the crisis employ traditionally men.

“As the crisis spreads this scenario fades confirming the fact that unfortunately unemployment has a gender dimension since more women seem to be affected than men”, she noted.

Charalambous further presented statistical data pertaining to the subject. During the 2nd quarter of 2011, the labour market came to 409,674 people of whom 224,138 were men and 185,536 were women, she said. The participation percentage of ages between 15 to 64 was 74.4% of the total population for these ages. The equivalent percentage for men was 81.6% and for women 67.4%.

Unemployed people came to 29,189 at the 2nd quarter of 2011, which translates to 7.1% of the labour market. Unemployment for men reached 7.2% and for women 7.0%. During the 1st quarter of 2011, unemployment stood at 7.4%, 7.4% for men and 12.9% for women. The equivalent percentage for the 2nd quarter of 2010 was 6.4%, 6.1% for men and 6.7% for women.

As regards part time work, Charalambous said that statistical data for 2nd quarter of 2011 show that it was 9.9% of total employment or 37,611 people. A percentage of 7.4% were men and 12.9% were women whereas at the 2nd quarter of 2010 the total percentage was 9.1%, of which 6.2% were men and 12.6% were women.