Introduction

The overall development of a district is partially based on the production of goods and services within it. Although all persons irrespective of age and sex consume goods and services, only a section of the population produces them. Therefore, the larger the employed population the more wealth is created leading to the general well-being of the population. This chapter analyses data on economic activities undertaken in Bia East District. The main focus of the analysis is on type of activity, occupation, industry, employment status and institutional sector. While data were collected on the population five years and older, most of the analyses in this section will be on the population fifteen years and older.

Economic Activity Status

Activity status refers to economic and non-economic activity of respondents during the seven days preceding census night. A person is regarded as economically active if he or she;

• Works for pay or profit or family gain for at least one hour within the seven days preceding census night. This category of persons included those who were in paid employment or self-employment or contributing family workers;
• Did not work but had job to return to;
• Were unemployed and actively looking for work.

However, economically not active persons are those who did not work and were not seeking for work. The category included homemakers, full time students, retired persons, the disabled and persons who were unable to work because of their age or ill-health.

Table 4.1 presents information on population 15 years and older by activity status and sex. From the Table, 78.6 percent of the population 15 years and older are economically active and those who are economically not active constitute 21.4 percent. Out of the economically active population, 96.2 percent are employed and 3.8 percent are unemployed.

Again, it is revealed in the Table that a higher proportion of females (23.9%) than males (19.2%) are economically not active. Among those who perform home duties (household chores), females are also more than the males, perhaps as a result of gender stereotyping. It is also seen that there a higher proportion of female (0.8%) pensioners or retirees than males (0.5%). The proportion of males in full time education is 66.1 percent compared to that of females (41.6%). This could be attributed to the stereotype attitude where males go to school while females are left at home to perform household chores. Some of the females also drop out from school due to pregnancy or early marriage.

Table 4.2 shows that the pattern of distribution of the population indicates generally that young people of age 15-19 years have the lowest proportion (28.5%) of the employed and this varies between 27.5 percent among the males and 29.5 percent among the females. This may be due to the fact that the young persons may be enrolled in various forms of schooling or apprenticeship. A similar picture is presented either for the males or females. Conversely, a relatively higher proportion of the younger age groups are unemployed compared to the older persons either among the males or females with few variations. In the same vein, economic inactivity appears to be higher among younger people than older persons. However, persons 65 years and older have higher proportions being economically not active compared to their counterparts between 30 and 64 years.

Occupation

Occupation refers to the type of work persons are engaged in as establishment where they work. Questions were asked of persons aged 15 years and older who worked for at least one hour in the seven days preceding the census night and those who did not work but had job to return to as well as those unemployed but had worked before. All these persons were classified by the work they engaged in.

Table 4.3 shows that the highest proportion of the population (79.4%) are skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers. Among males, 82.9 percent are skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers whereas among females, 75.2 percent are engaged in the same sector. Only a small proportion of the population 15 years and older are managers (1.0) and clerical support workers (0.3%). With regard to service and sales workers, the proportion is higher among females (13.0%) than males (3.0%). On the other hand, males are predominant in plant and machinery operations and assembling than females. The physically demanding nature of these jobs may account for the male dominance.