Government data published in May 2019 showed that 12.7% of the population are currently unemployed, with the highest concentration among young people, women, black, and mixed-race individuals. The unemployment rate in the age group 14 to 17 years reached 44.5%. Among those aged 18 to 24 years, the proportion of unemployed reached 31.9% in the Northeast region. However, the largest proportion of unemployment is concentrated among the population aged 25-59 (57.2%), followed by people aged 18 to 24 (31.8%), adolescents (8.3%) and people aged 60+ (2.6%). Women made up the majority (52.6%) of the unemployed population and the population outside the workforce (64.6%). Among men, the unemployment rate was 10.9% in the first quarter 2019, while among women it was 14.9% (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, 2019j).

References:

Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. (2019j, April 30). Desemprego sobe para 12,7% com 13,4 milhões de pessoas em busca de trabalho. IBGE – Agência de Notícias. https://agenciadenoticias.ibge.gov.br/agencia-noticias/2012-agencia-de-noticias/noticias/24283-desemprego-sobe-para-12-7-com-13-4-milhoes-de-pessoas-em-busca-de-trabalho

In 2018, the labour force statistics estimated that the unemployment rate was 2.8% (112.0 thousand people) and the underemployment rate was 1.1% (43.2 thousand people). The unemployment rates by gender for male and female were 3.2% and 2.9%, respectively (Census and Statistics Department, 2019i).

References:

Census and Statistics Department. (2019i). Table E489: Land area, mid-year population and population density by District Council district. Retrieved from: https://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/sub/sp150.jsp?productCode=D5320189

The unemployment rate for those aged 15 years and above in India was estimated to be 5.8% between 2018-2019 (Ministry of Labour and Employment, 2021). This fell to 4.8% in 2019-2020.

In the year 2019-2020, the labour force participation for those aged 15+ increased to 53.5% from 50.2% in 2018-2019 (Ministry of Labour and Employment, 2021).

References:

Ministry of Labour and Employment. (2021). Employment Situation Improves. Government of India. Available from: https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetailm.aspx?PRID=1779665

The unemployment rate in Indonesia was 5.4% in 2017 (CIA World Factbook, 2019). The World Bank estimates that total youth unemployment (15-24 years) as percentage of the labour force amounted to 15.84% in 2018 (World Bank, 2019b).

Employment in the informal economy, which means employment without formal arrangements, is estimated to make up over 60 per cent of the workforce (International Labour Organization (ILO), n.d.-a). This prevailing practice causes some difficulties in estimating employment and unemployment rates in Indonesia. Furthermore, as pointed out above (01.03.04) and further discussed under (01.04) the absence of social protection means that older people are often engaged in economic activity by formal or informal employment into very old age (Kidd et al., 2018).

References:

CIA World Factbook. (2019). Indonesia. https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/indonesia/

International Labour Organization (ILO). (n.d.-a). Informal economy in Indonesia and Timor-Leste. Retrieved March 9, 2019, from https://www.ilo.org/jakarta/areasofwork/informal-economy/lang–en/index.htm#banner

Kidd, S., Gelders, B., & Rahayu, S. K. (2018). Implementing Social Protection for the Elderly in Indonesia. http://www.tnp2k.go.id/filemanager/files/Perlindungan Sosial Lansia/Elderly Brief – English Version.pdf

World Bank. (2019b). Unemployment, youth total (% of total labor force ages 15-24) (modeled ILO estimate) – Indonesia. World Development Indicators. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.UEM.1524.ZS?locations=ID

The Labour Force Statistics for October 2019 indicated an unemployment rate of 7.2%, compared to 8.7% in October of 2018. This is a historic low for Jamaica. The unemployment rate for both females (down 2.7%) and males (down 0.4%) showed improvement. Youth unemployment also decreased. In October 2019, most males within the labour force (21.75%) worked within the Agriculture Hunting Forestry and Fishing industry, followed by Wholesale and Retail Repair of Motor Vehicle and Equipment (17.17%), and Construction (14.73%). Within the same time period, the majority of women (22.28%) worked in the Wholesale and Retail Repair of Motor Vehicle and Equipment industry, followed by the Hotel and Restaurant Services industry (11.89%) and Education (9.79%) (see table 6).

Table 6: Jamaican Labour Force by Industry and Gender (October 2018 and October 2019)

Source: Fiscal Policy Paper, 2020-2021; STATIN, 2019

COVID-19 and Employment:

The Government of Jamaica, with assistance from the Private Sector of Jamaica (PSOJ) is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic with the largest stimulus package in the history of Jamaica of 25 billion dollars. Of that amount, a 10 billion spending stimulus is being used to facilitate the novel COVID Allocation of Resources for Employees (CARE-) Programme, a temporary cash transfer programme to individuals and businesses. The programme has 9 components targeting specific industries:

1. SET Cash – Supporting Employees (with) Transfer of Cash
2. BEST Cash – Business Employee Support and Transfer of Cash
3. COVID-19 General Grants
4. COVID-19 Compassionate Grants
5. COVID-19 Path Grants
6. COVID-19 Small Business Grants
7. COVID-19 Tourism Grants
8. COVID-19 Student Loan Relief
9. Other COVID-19 Support Programmes.

The Minister of Finance Dr the Honourable Nigel Clarke reports that since applications opened on April 9, 2020, over 400,000 Jamaicans have successfully applied for one or more of the 9 components by April 20, 2020. Between the announcement of Jamaica’s first COVID-19 case on March 10, 2020 and April, 2020, approximately 46,948  persons reported that they were laid off and subsequently applied for the SET Cash programme. This programme requires employers to verify that employees were laid off (Jamaica Observer, 2020). As suspected and due to incoming flight restrictions, the tourist sector has been impacted the greatest. In fact, the majority of the SET Cash programme applicants were from St. James and St. Ann, Jamaica’s main tourist destinations.

References:

Government of Jamaica. (2020). Fiscal Policy Paper 2020-2021. Ministry of Finance and the Public Service. Available from: https://www.mof.gov.jm/wp-content/uploads/fiscal-policy-paper-2020-21-140220.pdf

Jamaica Observer. (2020, May 14). JHTA working with Gov’t to resolve SET Cash programme delays – Jamaica Observer. https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/jhta-working-with-govt-to-resolve-set-cash-programme-delays/

Statistical Institute of Jamaica. (2019). Main Labour Force Indicators. Available from: https://statinja.gov.jm/LabourForce/NewLFS.aspx

Employment (status, sector, and hours), conditions of work (wages, compensation costs, working poverty) and characteristics of job seekers (education, labour productivity) form some of the key indicators of labour market. Kenya’s bulging youth unemployment rate is more than 20%, primarily due to reduced education opportunities. This is also reflected in the general population where unemployment and under-employment are extremely high (about 40% of the population) with a higher rate of unemployment among women (2.9%) compared to men (2.6%) (Central Intelligence Agency, 2019; International Labour Organization (ILO), 2016). A third of those employed (with 83% of all employment opportunities provided by the informal sector) in Kenya work for more than 48 hours per week.

References:

Central Intelligence Agency. (2019). The World Factbook: Africa – Kenya. . https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/kenya/

International Labour Organization (ILO). (2016). Country profile. https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=1000:11110:0::NO:11110:P11110_COUNTRY_ID:103315

Unemployment slightly decreased in the immediate years previous to the year 2018 when it was estimated that 60% of the economically active population were employed (formal, informal and self-employed). Within total working age population, women’s participation, while increasing, still lags compared to men and to women in other Latin American countries, with 43.6% of total women 15 years and older reported in the labour force compared to 77.7% of men[1] (STPS, 2019).

Informal employment[2] amounts to approximately 57% of total working population. However, out of 100 Mexican pesos generated in the country, 77 come from formal employment and 23 from the informal economy (INEGI, n.d.-a). In relation to the group of people employed in the informal sector (16.0 million in 2018), 14.9% were self-employed in agriculture (no income/pay, no benefits), 14.6% worked in paid domestic services, but with no social security benefits, 9.3% worked without pay, and the remaining 61.2% were wage earners but without social security benefits (INEGI, n.d.-b; 2020).

The working status of older adults in Mexico is relevant. According to the National Employment and Occupation Survey, in 2018, 34.1% of adults 60 years and older were employed, and of these, 49.6% were self-employed (INEGI, 2018a).

[1]  Tasa Neta de Participación por Sexo: (PEA/PET en porcentaje)

[2] For statistics purposes the National Institute of Geography and Statistics, INEGI defines informal employment as that is those not affiliated to a social security institution granting health and employment benefits granted within social security insurance.

References:

INEGI. (2018a). Estadísticas a propósito del día internacional de las personas de edad (Adultos mayores). Datos nacionales. https://www.inegi.org.mx/contenidos/saladeprensa/aproposito/2018/edad2018_nal.pdf

INEGI. (2020). Estadísticas a propósito del día del trabajo. Datos nacionales. Comunicado de prensa núm. 166/20; 29 de abril de 2020. https://www.inegi.org.mx/contenidos/saladeprensa/aproposito/2020/trabajoNal.pdf

INEGI. (n.d.-a). Características educativas de la población. Retrieved March 16, 2022, from https://www.inegi.org.mx/temas/educacion/

INEGI. (n.d.-b). Directorio Estadístico Nacional de Unidades Económicas. DENUE. Retrieved March 16, 2020, from https://www.inegi.org.mx/app/mapa/denue/

STPS. (2019). Informaciòn laboral.

Table 17 summarises the employment statistics for New Zealand for the March 2020 quarter. Of the 3.9 million working age population (ages 15-64), 67.5% were in employment and the unemployment rate was 4.2%. While more males were in employment than females (72.4% vs 62.6%), there was a negligible difference between males and females for unemployment (4.1 vs 4.3%). Table 19 reports employment statistics by ethnicity and shows that the unemployment rate for Māori (8.7%) and Pacific (7.9%) is over twice that of Europeans (3.5%) (Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, 2019).

Underutilisation is a broad measure of spare capacity in the labour market and, in addition, to those who are unemployed, includes three other groups of people in the labour market:

• Underemployed individuals who have the desire or availability to increase their hours.
• Available potential job seekers (e.g., new university graduates) who want a job but are not actively seeking one.
• Unavailable job seekers which include people currently looking for a job but are not available to start quite yet.

Underutilisation was 10.4%, with a higher proportion of females (12.7%) compared with males (8.3%). Underutilisation for Māori (19%) and Pacific (17.1%) was higher than for Europeans (10.2%).

Table 17: Employment statistics for NZ in March 2020

Table 18: Employment statistics by age band, March 2020 (Statistics NZ, 2020)

Table 19: Employment statistics by ethnicity 2019 (Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, 2019)

References:

Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment. (2019). Pacific Peoples Labour Market – June 2019 Year. Available from: https://www.mbie.govt.nz/dmsdocument/4386-pacific-peoples-labour-market-report-june-2019.

Statistics NZ. (2020). Labour market statistics: March 2020 quarter. New Zealand Government Website. Available from: https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/labour-market-statistics-march-2020-quarter.

During the third quarter (July-Sept) of 2018, South Africa’s unemployment rate increased by 0.3 percentage point to 27.5% (StatsSA, 2018d). Compared to the second quarter (2018), employed persons increased by 92 000 (i.e., to 16.4 million), while persons slipping into unemployment increased by 127 000 (i.e., to 6.2 million) for the same period (StatsSA, 2018d). Currently, the national unemployment rate recorded for the first quarter of 2019 stands at 27.6% (StatsSA, 2019b). This trend in increasing unemployment has continued with a significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns.

The latest statistical release indicates a further decrease in employment between the fourth quarter in 2018, with declines recorded in both the formal and informal sectors (StatsSA, 2019b). During the first quarter in 2019, the unemployment rate increased in 6 of the 9 provinces, with Mpumalanga (2.2%), Limpopo and Free State (2.0%), and Eastern Cape (1.3%) recording the largest increases in unemployment (StatsSA, 2019b).

In 2018, the expanded unemployment rate (i.e., including people who have stopped looking for work) increased from 36.7% in the second quarter to 37.2% in the third quarter, with higher rates for women (41.2%) than for men (33.7%) (StatsSA, 2018d, 2018c). This trend continued into the first quarter of 2019 with a recorded expanded unemployment rate of 38% (StatsSA, 2019b).

Regardless of race, men in South Africa are more likely to be in paid employment compared to women, who by the second quarter of 2018 totalled 55.2% of workers involved in non-market activities (StatsSA, 2018c).

Based on these figures, the female South African workforce continues to experience lack of opportunities, systematic inequality, and indirect discrimination (SAHRC, 2017a).

Table 7: South African labour force by age (Jul-Sept 2018)

Source (data): (StatsSA, 2018d), p.23-24.

Table 8: South African labour force by gender (Jul-Sept 2018)

Source (data): (StatsSA, 2018d), p.19-20.

References:

SAHRC. (2017a). RESEARCH BRIEF ON GENDER AND EQUALITY IN SOUTH AFRICA 2013 to 2017. Available from: https://www.sahrc.org.za/home/21/files/RESEARCH%20BRIEF%20ON%20GENDER%20AND%20EQUALITY%20IN%20SOUTH%20AFRICA%202013%20to%202017.pdf

StatsSA. (2017a). Public healthcare: How much per person? Statistics South Africa: Statistical Release. http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=10548

StatsSA. (2018c). How do women fare in the South African labour market? Statistics South Africa. http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=11375

StatsSA. (2018d). Quarterly Labour Force Survey. Available from: https://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=11882

StatsSA. (2019b). Quarterly Labour Force Survey: Q1 2019. Available from: https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0211/Presentation_QLFS_Q1_2019.pdf