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ILO / WOMEN EMPLOYMENT REPORT
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STORY: ILO / WOMEN EMPLOYMENT REPORT
TRT: 2.30
SOURCE: UNTV/ WORLD BANK/ MINUSTAH/ UNIFEM/ UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 9 MARCH 2009, NEW YORK CITY/ FILE
FILE – WORLD BANK - MAY 2008, DHAKA, BANGLADESH
1. Med shot, sewing factory
FILE – UNIFEM - AFGHANISTAN
2. Med shot, woman baking bread
FILE – MINUSTAH - 9 FEBRUARY 2009, GONAIVES, HAITI
3. Wide shot, woman sorting beans
4. Close up, woman putting beans on ground
9 MARCH 2009, NEW YORK CITY
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Lawrence Jeff Johnson, Chief of Employment Trends Team of the UN International Labour Office (ILO):
“If you look at many industrialized economies what we have actually seen as the crisis began it hit finance, insurance and real estate very hard. Those particular sectors of that grouping that were dominated by male employment were the ones that took the hit; investment banking. The crisis also hit durable goods industry manufacturing, such as automobiles, which had a great concentration of male employment. Now as these males lost their jobs, the share of women remained higher. But we have to be careful, because what could happen, or what we have seen happening in many economies is that other sectors are being hit. Those sectors are traditionally dominated by female employment.”
FILE – UNHCR – 26, 27 FEBRUARY 2009, KAKUMA, KENYA
6. Wide shot, hair dresser and customer
7. Med shot, mirror reflection of hair dresser braiding customer's hair
8. Close up, hair dresser braiding customer's hair
9. Close up, woman’s feet operating sewing machine
10. Med shot, woman working with sewing machine
9 MARCH 2009, NEW YORK CITY
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Lawrence Jeff Johnson, Chief of Employment Trends Team of the UN International Labour Office (ILO):
“What we’ve seen in Latin America and the Caribbean is that female rates of unemployment were already hovering right around at nine percent, which is traditionally very high when it comes to regional unemployment estimates. But as this crisis plays out, it’s going to hit many of the sectors that, once again, had strong female concentration. In the models we are looking at 2009, we are could see female unemployment in the region going in excess of eleven percent.”
FILE – UNIFEM - COCHABAMBA, BOLIVIA
12. Wide shot, women working in a produce market
FILE - MINUSTAH - 17 FEBRUARY 2009, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
13. Wide shot, women working with sewing machines
14. Med shot, woman sewing
15. Med shot, woman sewing on a Singer machine
9 MARCH 2009, NEW YORK CITY
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Lawrence Jeff Johnson, Chief of Employment Trends Team of the UN International Labour Office (ILO):
“What we are looking at in the ILO is how to promote decent and productive employment and we are looking at that for both young people and women. We want to ensure that opportunity exists for both men and women, that we don’t have bias within the labor market. And it’s tried to create opportunities to help individuals and families balance their lives, what we say, work and family life. So it’s essential that we take a look at how women play an important role in the labor markets.”
FILE - WORLD BANK - MAY 2008, YELLAREDDY, ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA
17. Pan left, pile of rice
18. Med shot, women filling sacks with rice
A recent UN report predicts that the global economic crisis is likely to exacerbate gender inequality on the labor market.
In an interview with UNifeed, the chief author of the International Labour Office (ILO) report, Lawrence Jeff Johnson said that although at the beginning of the current economic crisis, areas dominated by male employment were the ones most affected, as the crisis evolves and expands it could hit the hardest on sectors that “are traditionally dominated” by women.
According to the Global Employment Trends for Women report, the economic crisis is expected to increase the number of unemployed women by up to 22 million in 2009, with the global jobs crisis expected to worsen sharply with the deepening of the recession in 2009.
The report says that the gender impact of the economic crisis in terms of unemployment rates is expected to be more detrimental for females than for males in most regions of the world and most clearly in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Johnson told UNifeed that female unemployment rates in Latin America and the Caribbean is were already very high, “but as this crisis plays out” it’s going to hit sectors that have “strong female concentration” and could reach unemployment rates “in excess of eleven percent”.
The report says the global economic crisis will place new hurdles in the path toward sustainable and socially equitable growth making decent work for women increasingly more difficult, and calls for “creative solutions” to address the gender gap.
Johnson said that ILO is aiming to “promote decent and productive employment” for both young people and women, in order to ensure that “we don’t have bias within the labor market”. He added that it is “essential that we take a look at how women play an important role in the labor markets”.
The Global Employment Trends report indicates that of the three billion people employed around the world in 2008, 1.2 billion were women (40.4 per cent). It said that in 2009, the global unemployment rate for women could reach 7.4 per cent, compared to 7.0 per cent for men.
