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New data shine light on gender gaps in the labour market

Gender imbalances in access to employment and working conditions are greater than previously thought and progress in reducing them has been disappointingly slow in the last two decades, according to this new ILO brief. A new indicator developed by the ILO, the Jobs Gap, captures all persons without employment that are interested in finding a job. It paints a much bleaker picture of the situation of women in the world of work than the more commonly used unemployment rate. The new data shows that women still have a much harder time finding a job than men. According to this brief, New data shine light on gender gaps in the labour market , 15 per cent of working-age women globally would like to work but do not have a job, compared with 10.5 per cent of men. This gender gap has remained almost unchanged for two decades (2005-2022). In contrast, the global unemployment rates for women and men are very similar, because the criteria used to define unemployment tends to disproportionately exclude women.