On Magnus' Figures

["D OC" <donaloc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Magnus' figures, in particular table 1, are again of interest and highlight
something fundamental about the participation rates with respect to gender.

Table 1 contains two columns for the three years - the difference between
the first column (employment/population ratio) and the second (labour
participation rate) is reflective of either very young or very elderly
populations. The fact that Spain, Ireland and Italy demonstrate percentage
differences of 14, 8 and 8% respectively is largely because these countries
have large proportions aged under 16/18.

The column of interest is the labour participation rate we can separate this
into 4 categories:

High (75 +): Denmark, Sweden and UK.

Medium (70-74): Austria, Germany, Finland, Netherlands and Portugal.

Low (65-69): France.

Very Low (64 and less): Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain.

This statistic is affected by two factors:

1. Proportion of students (which is affected by population demographic).
2. Proportion of females in domestic work.

I suspect that while the first factor may be of some importance, it is the
latter which really comes into play. The countries in the two lower
categories have a less atomised social infrastructure. As such, females tend
to be classified as 'stay-at-home' - economically inactive. Whereas in the
more 'advanced' countries females are much more involved in the labour
force. A comparison with US figures would likely demonstrate even higher
levels of female participation.

D OC.


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