An overview of women’s work and employment in Azerbaijan
labour (men: 6.8%), implying that government and state-owned enterprises account for two-thirds (66.5%)
of women’s paid employment, against just over half (52%) of men’s (data: SSC via AGIC website).
Table 2. Employment by status and gender, Azerbaijan, 2003 and 2008
2003 2008
|
male |
female |
male |
female | |||||
|
x1,000 |
___% |
x1,000 |
___% |
x1,000 |
___% |
x1,000 |
___% | |
|
Employers_____________________ |
140 |
7.1% |
______99 |
7.1% |
101 |
4.9% |
______19 |
0.9% |
|
Own-account workers and Con- |
709 |
35.9% |
566 |
40.4% |
970 |
47.4% |
1,247 |
62.1% |
|
Employees_____________________ |
1,127 |
57.0% |
737 |
52.5% |
977 |
47.7% |
742 |
37.0% |
|
Total_______________________________ |
1,976 |
100% |
1,402 |
100% |
2,048 |
100% |
2,008 |
100% |
Sources: ILO Laborsta, Table 2D
The growing ”informalisation” of the economy suggested by the figures of Table 2 seems rather at
odds with the rapid expansion of the Azerbaijan economy already noted, but is also reported by other
sources (cf. ADB 2005; Cosby et al 2007; ITUC 2008) and seems part of a longer-term trend. The Asian
Development Bank gender assessment report as of 2005 noted, “With fewer opportunities in the formal
sector (including in the developing private sector), women have increasingly looked to the informal sector
to supplement family income, although such work is usually unprotected and involves long hours for little
pay” (ADB 2005, xii). In 2004 at least one in six women could be found in informal labour: according to the
Labor Force Survey, 17% of women who reported themselves as employed defined themselves as engaging
in private entrepreneurship without establishing a legal entity (ADB 2005, 5).
Of the total Azerbaijani population, by 2008 4,371,000 persons were counted as economically active
(the share of the population over 14 of age in employment or registered unemployed), of which 45,500
aged 65 and older. If we leave out this group of elderly citizens in order to comply with the internationally
comparable Labour Participation Rate (LPR) or Employment-to-Population ratio (EPOP) that only takes
stock of the labour force aged 15-64 in percentages of the total population of the same age, we can calculate
the over-all LPR or EPOP at 69.3% (MDG Indicator 1.5). This implies a position in the lower middle ranks
among the 14 countries in our project. With respectively 72.7% for males and 66.0% for females, the “cor-
rected” female LPR in 2008 was 91% of the “corrected” male rate (the so-called women to men parity). In
Table 3, below, we show the 2008 LPR’s for 5-years’age cohorts.
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