Introduction

This section is devoted to the analysis of results on economic activity status of the residents aged 15 years and above, their occupations, industries they are engaged in, their employment status and sector of employment.

Economic Activity Status

Figure 4.1 shows the population 15 years and older by activity status. As shown in the chart 76.5 percent of the population 5years and older is economically active (employed and unemployed) while 23.5 percent are economically not active (not employed, not seeking nor available for work).

Figure 4.2 shows that students form a large proportion of the economically not active population (45%) followed by homemakers (25%), those too young or old to work (12.3%) and people with disability (7.5%). Pensioners or those on retirement constitute 1.1 percent.

Table 4.1 indicates that out of the economically active population, 95.9 percent are employed while the unemployed (that is, those without work but are seeking and available for work) make up 4.1 percent. Of those who are unemployed, majority (66%) of them are first time job seekers.

Table 4.2 indicates the employed population 15 years and older by sex, age and activity status. Within the population 73.4 percent are employed, 3.1 percent are unemployed and 23.5 percent are economically not active. In the age groups those aged 45-49 years, 93.7 percent are employed, and between 2024 years, 6.7 percent are unemployed and those 15-19 years 64.9 percent are economically not active and this is expected because they may either be in school and in apprenticeship.

With respect to gender, the table indicates that 76.1 percent males are employed, 2.9 percent are unemployed and 21.0 percent being economically not active in the district. The table further reveals that among the females 70.8 percent are employed, 3.4 percent unemployed and 25.9 percent being economically not active.

The data again reveals that males aged 45-49 years 95.0 percent are employed, as against 92.3 percent for females and with those economically not active 65.3 percent males aged 15-19 and 64.4 percent females are found in the district. The information then indicates that those more males and females aged 45-49 years are employed compared to the other ages in the district.

Figure 4.3 indicates that the age cohort with the highest proportion of employed population is 25-29 age group with 15.2 percent, followed by the 20- 24 year age group with 14.3% and the lowest is 60-64 year group with 3.4%.

The age group (20-24 years) has the highest proportion of the unemployed (33.7%), followed by 25- 9 year group (21.6%) while the lowest is the age group of 65years and above (0.6%). On the other hand the age group with highest proportion of the economical not active persons is the 15 - 19 age band, accounting for 48.9%. This could be attributed to the fact that most of these people are in the school going age and are likely to be in school. The 55 - 59 year age group has the lowest economical not active population of 1.2 percent.

Occupation

Occupation largely focuses on specific economic activities that people engage in for their livelihood. In the 2010 PHC, occupation is defined as economic activities that individuals engaged in to earn a living in cash or in kind .Table 4.3 shows that more than half (59.3%) of the economically active population aged 15 years and older are skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers. About 17.9 percent is also engaged as plant and machine operators /assemblers and 9.3 percent are service and sales workers. Craft and related trade workers account for 5.9 percent. Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery work remains the dominant occupation for both males (56.6%) and females (62.1%). However, a much higher proportion of females (15.3%) than males (3.6%) are engaged as service and sales workers.