Introduction

The development of any country depends on the production of goods and services. The most critical production factor of a country is the human capital. Although all persons irrespective of age and sex consume goods and services produced, only a section of the total population produces them. Thus the working population is often referred to as the “employed’. This Chapter discusses economic activity status, occupation, industry and employment status of the population 15 years and over in the district. It also examines the employment sector of the employed population.

Economic Activity Status

The question on economic activity was asked of all persons five years and above 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. Table 4.1 shows that in 2010, more than eighty percent (82.1%)of the population aged 15 years and older are economically active within the seven days preceding the census night whilst less than a quarter (17.9%) are economically not active. Of the economically active population, 98.6 percent are employed and 1.4 percent is unemployed. Of the unemployed, 53.6 percent worked before but were seeking work and available while the remaining 46.4 percent were seeking work for the first time.

Regarding the economically not active population, students constitute the majority (48.4%). Again, 20.4 percent perform household duties whilst pensioners/retirees have the least proportion of 0.8 percent among the economically not active population. In general, almost equal proportions of males (98.7%) and females (98.5%) are employed. More females are economically not active (18.4%) than males (17.3%). The proportion of females engaged in household chores (24.4%) is higher than males (15.9%) since these activities are considered as women’s work. Furthermore, 21.0 percent were too old or young to work with a higher proportion of females (26.8%) than males (14.3%) were also too old or young to work.

The employed population 15 years and older by sex, age and activity status is presented in Table 4.2. It could be observed from the table that the proportion of employed persons 15 years and older increases steadily from 63.8 percent in the age group 15-19 to a peak of 94.5 percent in the age group 45-49 and declines again to the lowest proportion of 59.7 percent in the oldest age group 65 and above.

The reverse is true with the economically not active where the proportions decline steadily from the age group 15-19 to the lowest proportion of 3.7 percent in the age group 45-49 and rises again to the highest level of 40.0 percent in the oldest age group. The unemployment levels do not follow any pattern. The patterns are generally repeated among the males and females.

However, more males tend to work well into their old ages than females. For example, while 74 percent of the males are still employed at age 65+, only 46.5 percent of females in that age group are employed, and while just about a quarter of the males (25.8%) in that age group are economically not active, as much as 53.3 percent of females are in that category.