Introduction

This chapter deals with the characteristics of the economy of the Binduri District. The analysis and interpretations thereof focus on the following areas: type of activity, occupation, industry, employment status, and employment sector. The analysis and interpretation contained in this chapter relate to data on the population 15 years and older in the district.

Economic Activity Status

Table 4.1 shows that there are 34,518 persons who are 15 years and older in the district. Out of the employed population, 98.5 percent worked during the reference period (the 7 days preceding the census night), 1.1 percent do not work but have a job to go back to while 0.4 percent do voluntary work without pay. The table further shows that 41.5 percent of the unemployed are seeking work for the first time. This could be attributed to the high number of graduates who have just completed school. This means that job creation and/or creating the environment for self- employment should be a priority for the district assembly. This is more so because with 51.6 percent of the economically not active currently in full time education, they would in the near future add up to the unemployed population upon completing school. The high percentage (58.5%) of the unemployed who have worked before, seeking work and available, is due to the seasonality of most economic activities especially farming.

There is no much difference in economic activity status based on sex except that, among the economically not active population, the proportion of males who do home duties (household chores) is 11.2 percent, while that of females is 17.9 percent. This indicates that in the district females are still seen as housekeepers.

The age structure of a population is relevant to the development of every economy because differences in the age structure have varied implications for the employment situation in the economy. Table 4.2 indicates that 80.2 percent of the population 15 years and older are employed, 0.7 percent are unemployed, while 19.1 percent are economically not active. The age group 40-44 has the majority (96.4%) of its population employed, and at the same time has the least percent (3.2%) of its population being economically not active. Interestingly, Over two-thirds of the population (68.4%) 65 years and older are employed with less than one percent of them (0.1%) being unemployed. This is possibly because the main source of employment in the district is agriculture which doubles as the traditional source of lively of the people in the district. The 31.4 percent of persons 65 years and older who are economically not active are probably too old and physically incapacitated to continue with this traditional economic activity. There is thus the need for social intervention programmes to cater for these people.

Table 4.2 also shows that the female population (19,000) 15 years and older is greater than the male population (15,518). The female population that is employed is 80.7 percent compared to that of their male counterparts (79.6%). There is however no difference between males and females who are unemployed (0.7%). Even though there are more females than males, only 18.6 percent of them are economically not active as compared to 19.7 percent of males who are economically not active. This means that women are contributing more to the local economy than men in terms of numbers.

This means that economic programmes and interventions must take into consideration the fact that more women than men would need more resources in terms of financial assistance as well as subsidies and inputs in the local economy.

Occupation

In the Binduri District, 84.3 percent of the employed are skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers while 5.9 percent are service and sales workers. Another 5.2 percent are craft and related trade workers while only 1.5 percent are professionals. This means that much attention must be given to the agricultural sector in the short to medium term while long term strategies should be proffered for the other promising occupations.

Gender analysis of occupational distribution in the district have a higher proportion of females (8.6%) as service and sales workers as compared to the proportion of males (2.5%) in that occupation.

The percentage of males who are skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers is 86.9 percent, while the proportion of female agricultural workers is 82.1 percent. However, there is greater female proportion (6.1%) in the craft and related trades workers as compared to the percentage of males