Introduction

This chapter discusses the economic activities of the population 15 years and older for the week preceding the Census Night, with emphasis on economic activity status, main occupation, industry, sector of employment and employment status. The primary source of relevant information on labour and employment data of every nation is largely from the population and housing census report of the nation. The production of goods and services largely depends on a country’s labour force that is economically active. That is what determines the relative contribution of the working population in the various sectors of the economy to a country’s economic development. It also talks about employment status and employment sector. They are also useful for advocacy and manpower planning in the district, hence their regular feature in population censuses (GSS, 2013).

Economic Activity Status

This section presents information on the activity status, size and structure of the labor force and its distribution by sex. The activity status of all persons 15 years and older in the district. A large majority (84.6%) of the population 15 years and older is economically active with only 15.4 percent being economically not active in the district. Nearly all the economically active population (98.6%) are employed, with just 1.4 percent being unemployed. The proportion of employed males (98.7%) is slightly higher than females (98.5%). The reverse is true with respect to the unemployed population 15 years and older (1.5% for females and 1.3% for males). Similarly, among the economically not active, there were slightly more females (16.9%) than males (14.0%). Majority of this category of people (51.6%) were in full time education with another 24.4 percent who did home duties. The economically not active who are males (64.9%) are much more likely than their female counterparts (39.6%) to be in full time education. On the other hand, the economically not active females were more than twice more likely to do home duties than their male counterparts (32.9% versus 15.0%). 
 
The activity status of the employed population 15 years and older by age and sex. Out of the total population of 33,661 in the district, 28,077(83.4%) are employed, 401(1.2%) are unemployed and 5,183(15.4%) are economically not active. The data in the table show that, in general the number of employed population among the economic active population 15 years and older in the district increases with age and attains its peak at age 45-49 (96.2%). From this age group, it then begins to fall to the lowest point of 66.8 percent at age 65 and above. On the other hand, the table reveals that the unemployed population of the district is generally inversely proportional to age. This means the higher the age group the lower the unemployed population becomes. The economically not active population has the highest proportion at the youngest age group (40.3%) and decreases steadily to the lowest proportion of 2.9 percent in the age group 40-44. It then increases with age to the second highest proportion of 32.8 percent in the oldest age group 65 and above. That seems to suggest that the economically not active population is made up of young people who may be schooling as well as old people who are perhaps retired.

There are slightly more employed males (84.9%) than females (81.8%). Like the general population, the proportion of employed males and females increases with age but the female proportions peak earlier (40-44 years) than male proportions (45-49 years). That implies that males get employed into older ages than females in the district. In fact, while as much as 77.6 percent of the males are still employed at age 65 and above, only 54.6 percent of females are in similar situation. In the unemployed category however, females recorded a slightly high percentage of 1.3 percent than males (1.1%). The same trend is also observed for the economically not active with 16.9 percent females compared to 14.0 percent males.