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Women only one fourth of Palestinian labor force: statistics

Xinhua, March 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) issued Tuesday statistics on International Women's Day, showing women participation in labor force only one fourth compared to men.

The wide gap in participation rate shows that female participation in labor force is only 19.1 percent, while male participation is more than three times higher, comprising 71.9 percent of the labor force.

The latest statistics cited advancement of female labor participation by nearly 90 percent since 2001, where women represented back then only 10.3 percent of the labor force.

The results issued by the Palestinian statistics bureau showed that the sectors of services and agriculture are the main job absorbents of women, taking in 62.9 percent in services and 13.1 percent in agriculture.

Suhair Farraj, general director of Women Media and Development Center (TAM), said the rise in the participation by 90 percent is likely due to including women in the unofficial labor force, such as agriculture.

Unofficial sectors, like agriculture, domestic assistants, cleaning workers and workers at nurseries, private offices and clinics, are not registered by official authorities and the taxation system. Those sectors widely employ women who are paid low wages.

"In case of including the unofficial sector into statistics, women would reflect higher contribution in the labor force, which explains why the rise is only in agriculture and services but not in civil service," Farraj said.

Meanwhile, the official report showed a gender gap in wages, where women make daily wage of about 21 U.S. dollars compared to daily wage of 27.5 U.S. dollars of men, without explaining weather or not the unofficial sector is included in the statistics.

Rima Nazzal, secretariat member of the General Union of Palestinian Women, said "it's easier to pressure women in any work sector."

She said the reasons for that are rooted in the lack of public participation of women and recruitment in public unions, rights or political groups.

Therefore, the wages gap continues to exist, especially that "many do not know their rights and that there is a minimum wage regulation that applies to both genders."

The minimum wage regulated by the Palestinian government is equivalent to about 370 U.S. dollars per month, but a majority of employers do not abide by it.

According to the official statistics, about half of the women with 13 years of education and above are unemployed, while the unemployment rate in general is 39.2 percent for women against 22.5 percent for men.

The statistics bureau estimated the Palestinian population in the end of 2015 at 4.75 millions, of whom 49.2 percent are women. Endit