RISE IN WOMEN IN WORK & GENDER PAY GAP NARROWS
(23 March 2006)

Women's employment has increased from a rate of 56 per cent in 1971 to 70 per cent in 2005. This equates to 4 million more women in work over the last 35 or so years. Some of this increase has been driven by the rise in working mothers. These are among the figures highlighted in Labour Market Review 2006, a new report from the Office for National Statistics.

Over the ten years to spring 2005, the employment rate for married or cohabiting mothers increased by 6 percentage points and the employment rate for lone mothers by 14 percentage points, reflecting increases in both full-time and part-time employment.

The pay gap has narrowed. Women's hourly pay is now 87 per cent of men's, compared with 80 per cent in 1998. There are differences in the types of job held by men and women. Women are four times more likely than men to work in personal service occupations, such as hairdressing and childminding, and over twice as likely to work in sales and customer service.

The report also describes the rise in the importance of service sector jobs in the economy. In 1978, 61 per cent of employee jobs were in services. By 2005 this had risen to 82 per cent. During the same period, jobs in manufacturing declined from 28 per cent to 12 per cent of the total.

Labour Market Review 2006 stands back from the monthly labour market figures produced by ONS and describes some longer term trends. It sets out an invaluable summary of core facts, presented in a straightforward way so as to be accessible to a wide range of users.

Among the other facts highlighted by the report are:

* In 2005 the UK labour market remained strong, despite the wider economic slowdown. There were tentative signs of some easing, with the claimant count rising, but employment remained historically high.

* UK employment levels have been rising generally over the last three decades, increasing from 24.6 million in 1971 to 28.8 million in 2005.

* The percentage of teleworkers has doubled between spring 1997 and spring 2005, from 4 per cent to 8 per cent of the total workforce.

* In the 12 months to November 2005, the lowest unemployment rates were for people of White or Indian ethnic origin (4.4 per cent and 6.8 per cent respectively). Unemployment rates were highest for those of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin (15.0 per cent).

* There has been an increase over the past decade in the number of students and, within this group, numbers who do not have a job or are seeking one (classified as economically inactive) have increased. In autumn 2005, economically inactive students represented 23 per cent of all working-age inactive people.

* Despite relative stability in overall inactivity rates, there have been different trends for men and women. Among men the inactivity rate has grown from 4.9 per cent in 1971 to 16.6 per cent in 2005. In contrast the female inactivity rate declined from 40.6 per cent 26.4 per cent.

The median gross weekly pay for full-time employees in the United Kingdom was £431 in 2005. Median gross hourly earnings of full-time adults grew to £10.79 in 2005, up by 3.2 per cent on 2004.

The Labour Market Review 2006 is available at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/labourmarketreview.

The Guide to Labour Market Statistics is available at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/labour_guide.