A NOTICEABLY higher proportion of women than men would like to work but don’t have a job, a global disparity that has barely budged in a new index dating back in 2005.

The so-called gender gap revealed by the gauge shows 15 per cent of female working-age would-be employees in that category, compared with 10.5 per cent for their male counterparts, according to a report by the International Labor Organization (ILO) published on Monday (Mar 6).

The shortfall leaves an even more exaggerated effect on wages: women earn only 51 cents for each US dollar of labour income generated by men, the Geneva-based researchers wrote in the study.

That disparity is worse in poorer countries, falling to 29 cents in the lower-middle income category. The tally in the richest nations is 58 cents per US dollar earned by men.

The analysis reveals differences that are masked by conventional measures of unemployment, which normally only include people recently seeking work with the availability to take up a job. That categorisation excludes many women disproportionately burdened by unpaid care work, for example for children.

“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,” the ILO said in a press release. “The new data shows that women still have a much harder time finding a job than men.” BLOOMBERG

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