Introduction

Economic activity is one of the indicators by which the quality of life of a population can be measured. Whether or not the standard of living of the population can improve is dependent on the various economic factors prevailing in the area. This chapter focuses on the economic activity status, occupation, industry, employment status and the employment sectors of the district. These are important indicators used in measuring the living standards and the general livelihood of a population. It becomes even more crucial against the backdrop that the population of the district is entirely in rural localities and poverty appears more pervasive among rural population compared to the urban population.

Economic Activity Status

Data on the economic activity status, presented in Table 4.1, for persons 15 years and older, show that 34,922 persons made up of 77.5 percent economically active and 22.5 percent persons who are economically not active are in the District. The economically active population (27,076) is made up of 96 percent employed and 4 percent unemployed persons. Similar proportions are observed for both the male and female population. Whiles 72.8 percent of the unemployed males are first time job seekers, the corresponding proportion of females is 67.2 percent. This implies 32.8 percent of the currently unemployed females had ever worked compared with 27.2 percent of their male counterparts.

Table 4.1 further shows that 45.8 percent of the economically not active population are in full time education, whilst 23 percent were engaged in home duties. The proportion of females engaged in household work (29.3%) was slightly higher than that of males (23%). Contrarily, more males (57.9%) than females (35.7%) indicated schooling was their reason for being economically not active. Table 4.2 provides information on the of activity status of population aged 15 years and over across the various age groups in the district.

The economically active population form the productive population of any nation. They form the age group 15-64 years. It is this population that is expected to produce to feed the population below 15 years of age and above 64 years, known as the dependent population. Table 4.2 shows that out of the 26,003 persons 15 years and older who are employed, more than nine in ten persons in the age group 30 to 59 years. The same pattern is observed among the male and female populations. It worth noting that a little more than one out of every six employed male or female is aged between 20 and 24 years. Table 4.2 further reveals that about four out of five (93.2%) unemployed persons are below age 40, with slightly more females (94.5%) than males (94%). The unemployment situation is more pronounced among the economically active population below 30 years.

Occupation

The occupation and sex of the employed population 15 years and over is shown in Table 4.3. For both sexes, slightly more than seven out of every ten persons (72.1%) aged 15 years and older engage in skilled agricultural forestry and fishery work and this sector forms the largest working group. Next to this are the plant and machine operators and assemblers (9.9%) and service and sales workers (7.6%). Managers (0.7%), professionals (2.4%), technicians/associate professionals (0.4%), clerical support workers (0.2%), craft and related trades (4.8%) and elementary occupation (1.9%) constitute only 10.4 percent of employed persons 15years and over in the district.