Introduction

This chapter seeks to analyses data on economic activities undertaken in the Bia West District. The main focus of the analysis is on five areas, economic activity status, occupation, industry, employment status, and employment sector. There is also information on the economically active population and economically not active population, the employed and unemployed. Although data was collected on population five years and older, most of the analyses in this section will be on the population 15 years and older.

Economic Activity Status

The question on economic activity was asked of all persons five years and older who engaged in any activity for pay (cash or kind) or profit or family gain for at least one hour during the seven days preceding census night. A person was regarded as economically active population if that person:

Work 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 jobs to go back to; and are unemployed and actively looking for work.

The overall development of a district is based on the production of goods and services. Consumption patterns of all persons enumerated are captured, irrespective of their ages and sexes. The results show that only a portion of the population produces these goods and services in the district.

On the other hand, economically not active persons were those who did not work and were not seeking for work. This category includes 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 the population 15 years and older by activity status and sex. From the table, 76.9 percent of the population 15 years and older are economically active, whiles those economically not active constitute 23.1 per cent. Among the economically active population, 96.4 per cent are employed and 3.6 per cent are unemployed in the district.

The table further shows that the proportion of females (25.9%) is more than the proportion of males (20.5%) who are economically not active. Among those who perform home duties (household chores), females predominate males, perhaps due to gender/sex stereotyping. The proportion of economically not active males in full time education (68.1%) is higher than females (45.0%). This could be due to the stereotype system where males go to school whiles females stay at home and help with household chores.

In Figure 4.1, there are slight variations in all the activity status among males and females in the district. From the chart, it is observed that majority of the population 15 years and older are employed, with males (97.2%) marginally higher than females (95.4%). Among the economically not active, there was a higher proportion of females (25.94%) than males (20.51%).

Table 4.2 shows that most of the people employed are in the age range of 20-44 years. Together constituting 68.6 per cent and is more pronounced among those aged 25-29 years (17.4%). It is observed that unemployment is more pronounced in the age range 20-29 compared to those in other age groups. Among the economically not active population, almost 52.1 per cent are aged 15-19 years and the least is noted among the population 55-59 years (0.8%).

Out of the employed population of 38,580, roughly 54 per cent are males while the rest (46%) are females. This means that, more males are employed than females. But among the unemployed and the economically not active populations, females dominate males.

Occupation

Table 4.3 shows that the highest proportion of the population aged 15 years and older in Bia West District are skilled agricultural forestry and fishery workers, with males having a proportion of 78.0 per cent compared to females 71.0 per cent in their respective populations. It can further be seen from the table that service and sales workers form the next occupation with high population of 9.0 per cent. Only a small proportion of the population 15 years and older are managers (1.1%) and clerical support workers (0.4%). Among the service and sales workers, females are more (15.1%) than males (3.8%); this is due to the dominance of females in that field. Males also dominate in plants and machine operators and assembling (2.7%) and among females, it is 0.1 per cent. The reason may be because such occupation requires physical strength and specific skills, which are attributed to males.

Industry

Industry refers to the type of product produced or services rendered at the respondent’s workplace. Information was collected only on the main product produced or service rendered in the establishment during the reference period. Table 4.4 describes employed population 15 years and older by industry and sex. Majority (74.4%) of the population 15 years and older are in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry and have more males (77.9%) in this industry than females (70.3%). This is followed by wholesale and retail; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (9.3%) and among the sexes, there 10.3 per cent and males 8.4 per cent females in the sector.

Employment Status

Employment status referred to the status of a person in the establishment where he/she currently works or previously worked. From Table 4.5, out of a total number of 38,580 of the population 15 years and older, the proportion of the population who are self-employed without employee(s) is 54.3 per cent. However, the proportion for males is higher (57.4%) than females (50.7%). This means that, the district’s employment status is dominated by self-employed without employees. Also for the employee population of 5,301, males are 74.1 per cent while females are 25.9 per cent. Obviously, these data reveal that more males are employed than females in the Bia West District. A proportion of females (29.1%) who are contributing family workers are higher than their male counterparts (9.5%). The table further shows a slight difference in proportions on domestic employee (house help) for males and females.

Employment Sector

Employment sector refers to the sector in which a person works. Table 4.6 shows employed population 15 years and older by employment sector and sex. From the Table, the proportion of population who are employed in private informal sector is 94.1 per cent. Similar pattern is seen in both sexes where majority of both males and females are employed in the private informal. However, it is higher for females (96.5%) than males (92.0%). The proportion of people working in the private formal sector is 3.1 per cent as against 1.4 per cent for females. The public sector accounts for 3.2 per cent of the people employed.

From Figure 4.3, the per cent of population who are employed in the private informal sector have the highest proportion – 94.1 per cent closely followed by the public (Government) sector (3.2%) and private formal (2.3%). There are virtually no persons in the district who work in Other International Organisations.