Preliminary results from this year’s statistics, reveal that men still dominate the work force over women. 

From the Labour Force Report, as of November 2018 more men than women and more young men than young women are employed. 

In fact, men outnumber women in the work force by almost 10,000.

According to the report, “women were more likely than men to be unemployed.

“Overall, the unemployment rate for women reached 11.3 percent in November, compared to 10.0 percent for men. 

“Young women, those aged 15-24 and core-aged women, those aged 25 to 54, were more likely to be unemployed than their male counterparts. 

“Young women were more likely to be unemployed than young men, according to The Caribbean Development Bank’s (CDB) report, as youth unemployment in the Caribbean is among the highest in the world, with the unemployment rate for those aged 15 to 24 reaching 42.7per cent. 

According to the labour stats, “similar patterns persist in the Bahamas, as youth unemployment for women was highest recorded for all age groups. 

“The unemployment rate for young women reached 24.1%, compared with 22.4 per cent  for young men, 23.1 per cent  for both sexes” the report indicates.

However, also according to the report, there has been an increase in the number of women employed as of November 2018, compared to May 2018, albeit slightly, by just over 1,500. As such there was also an increase in the number of males employed during the same period of 2,690.

By contrast, men aged 55 years and over were slightly more likely to be unemployed when compared with women in their same age cohort.

Summarized, the Labour Force Report indicates that the rate of job growth is not adequate to absorb the growth of the labour force as school leavers join the labour market yearly.