Introduction

Economic activity status of a particular population seeks to provide a secure and regular income for the individuals. The absence of economic activity results in idleness and the attendant social vices, especially among the youth. Depending on the resources and opportunities in a given area, people may be economically active or inactive. This section presents information on the population 15 years and older in the District in relation to their economic activity status.

Economic Activity Status
Economic activity status by sex

Table 4.1 presents data on population 15 years and older by activity status and sex. The table shows that the district had a population of 31,494 aged 15 years and older, of which, 77.9 percent are economically active, while 22.1 percent are economically not active. Of the 24,543 economically active persons, 97.7 percent are employed while 2.3 percent are unemployed. The data also show that the economically not active population is 6,951 of which 41.3 percent are in full time education, 24.0 percent did home duties and 25.3 percent too old/young to work. Disable/sick constituted 4.5 percent of the economically not active population.

Economic activity status by age and sex

From Table 4.2, the total number of persons who are 15 years and older is 31,494. Out of this number, 76.1 percent are employed, 1.8 percent are unemployed while 22.1 percent are economically not active.

The Table shows that the proportion of employed people increases with increasing age from age group 15-19 until age group 55-59 when it starts to decline. The economically not active is highest at age group 15-19 but starts to decline up to age group 45-49. At age 65+ many more male (71.1%) than females (49.4%) are employed. Similarly, at age 65+ many more females (50.2%) than males (28.5%) are economically not active.

Occupation

Table 4.3 shows that 77.6 percent of the employed population is engaged as skilled agriculture, forestry and fishery workers, followed by service and sales workers (9.7%), and craft related trades workers (6.3%).
Table 4.3 further shows that proportionately, there are many more males (79.5%) in skilled agriculture, forestry and fishery sector than females (76.1%). However, there are many more female workers (12.2%) in the service and sales sector than males (6.8%) in that sector. On the other hand, while there is 2.3 percent of males in the plant and machine operators and assemblers category, there is less proportion of females (0.1%) in the same sector.