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Scottish Economic Report: March 2004

Men and Women At Work 1992-2002

Jessica Minty and Paul Teasdale ¹
Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department
Scottish Executive

Summary

The number of people of working age employed in 2002 was 142,000 higher than in 1992 - an increase of 6 per cent, taking employment to historically high levels. In this article we look at some changes in the pattern of employment associated with this increase. We look at the demand side - which sectors have grown or shrunk - and at the supply side - in particular the balance between male and female workers. We show that although female employment has increased in total, within several individual industrial sectors the share of employee jobs filled by women has fallen. The main exceptions are the industrial sectors that are largely in the public sector.

Introduction

This article looks mainly at the changes in the number of male and female employees over the decade to 2002, using data from the Annual Business Inquiry (ABI). However, we begin by looking at changes in total employment - including not just employees, but the self-employed, those on government supported training programmes and unpaid family workers - using data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS).

The LFS recorded a 6 per cent increase in the number of people in employment in Scotland between 1992 and 2002 from 2,269,000 to 2,411,000 ². This rate of growth was slower than in the preceding decade (approximately 8 per cent), but the employment rate (i.e. proportion of the population in employment) is now close to historically high levels, with 73.3 per cent of the working age population employed in 2002 ³. The increase in employment was slightly more than the fall in unemployment. ILO unemployment ⁴ has declined, from 261,000 in 1992 to 166,000 in 2002 (LFS).

Table 4.4.1 shows that over the decade employment increased by 142,000. The number of women in employment grew faster than the number of men - 120,000 compared to 22,000. While the number of employees and self employed increased, the number of unpaid family workers and people on government supported training fell.

Splitting the period in two shows that, in the first half of the decade, for men, there was a big increase in the number economically inactive (not in employment or actively seeking work), but in the second half of the decade the number stabilised. For women the number who were economically active (in employment or actively seeking work) increased throughout the decade, though more so in recent years. As a proportion of the population of women of working age, the number economically active rose from 71.4 per cent in 1997 to 75.2 per cent in 2002.

Self employment

Self employment accounted for 9 per cent of employment in 1992, rising to 10 per cent in 2002. Although the number of self employed women has grown faster than the number of self employed men (38 per cent, compared to just 1 per cent) the self employed are still mostly male (75 per cent, down from 80 per cent in 1992) and 13 per cent of working men are self employed compared with just 5 per cent of working women.

Employees made up 90 per cent of employment in 2002, up from 88 per cent in 1992, a rise which is, in part, due to the decline in the number on government training programmes. For the remainder of this article we concentrate on employees.

Industrial change

For an analysis of employees by industrial sector we turn to the Annual Business Inquiry series which provides more industrial detail than does the LFS. The other key difference between the sources is that the LFS records the number of people in employment, while the ABI records the number of jobs. As approximately 6 per cent of workers have more than one job; the number of jobs recorded is greater than the number of people in employment. A discontinuity in the series means that we cannot compare recent data with years before 1995, so we will look at the data for the period 1995 to 2002 (the latest year available).

Chart 4.4.2 shows how industries have grown since 1995. It is no surprise that there has been considerable growth in services, while manufacturing and construction have declined.

Part time employee jobs

In 1995 28 per cent of jobs were part time. This is higher than the headline figure reported in the LFS which reports only the people working part time in their main jobs. Table 4.4.2 shows the proportion of part time employees for each sector. Had the balance between full time and part time jobs stayed constant in each sector while the level of employment changed (as shown in Chart 4.4.1) the number of full time jobs would have grown by 6 per cent and the number of part time jobs would have grown by 14 per cent. This would have resulted in 30 per cent of jobs being part time.

However, Table 4.4.2 shows that by 2002, part time jobs accounted for 32 per cent of jobs. In nearly every sector there has been a shift to a greater proportion of part time jobs; that is part time employment increased faster (or contracted less) than did full time employment. The one exception was Financial Services, where the number of part time employees fell. This effect shifted the overall share of part time employment up by a further two percentage points on top of the structural changes in the economy.

Women in employee jobs

A majority of people in employment, including those in self employment are male. But among employees a majority are female. Women currently fill about 51 per cent of employee jobs. As Chart 4.4.3 shows, since 1995 women have filled more, or an equal number of, employee jobs than men with the exception of one year, 1999.

Table 4.4.1 showed that the number of female employees increased faster than did the number of male employees between 1992 and 2002. In statistical terms there are two possible reasons for this change:

• sectors traditionally employing mostly women have expanded faster than other sectors;
• women have moved into sectors traditionally employing mostly men.

The pattern of differing rates of growth for the various industrial sectors could be expected to have consequences for the gender mix of the workforce. The declining industries are ones with a mainly male labour force, while the growing ones are mainly female. Had the male/female mix within each sector stayed the same as it was in 1995 (shown in the first column in Table 4.4.3), the change in the size of the sectors would have resulted in 12 per cent growth for females, and 5 per cent growth for males. Women would now account for 52 per cent of employees. However, that did not happen and, overall, women's share of jobs stayed at 51 per cent.

The explanation was a countervailing tendency: the male/female balance shifted within sectors. Perhaps contrary to what some might suppose, in several sectors men have increased their share of jobs:

• In the contracting sectors (manufacturing and construction) the number of female employees has fallen faster than the number of male employees.
• In sectors where women constitute a majority of employees (distribution and finance), male employment has grown faster than female employment.
• In "other services" where there was an even balance in 1995 the rate of growth was the same for men and women.
• Female shares increased in only three sectors. Two of these were from a low base (Energy and Water and Transport and Communication).
• The sector that stands out as large, with many women and an increasing share of employment is public administration, health and education. We discuss this contrast further below.

Women continue to be concentrated in particular sectors. Public Administration, Health and Education now account for 40 per cent of all female employment up from 35 per cent in 1995. These sectors along with Distribution, Hotels and Restaurants account for 66 per cent of female jobs, up from 62 per cent in 1995. Men, on the other hand, are less industrially concentrated than they were in 1995.

More men in part time jobs

Women also continue to be heavily concentrated in part time jobs. Indeed in 2002, 49 per cent of the employee jobs done by women were part time, up from 46 per cent in 1995. But at the same time an increasing proportion of part time jobs were filled by men. Men, in 2002, filled 22 per cent of part time jobs, up from 18 per cent in 1995.

However, men still filled 62 per cent of full time jobs, unchanged from 1995. So although more than half of all employee jobs are filled by women, men still supply more than half the hours worked ⁵.

Table 4.4.4 shows that the rate of growth in full time jobs was the same for men and women (3 per cent). Just as with the sectoral analysis there was a faster growth of the type of jobs traditionally dominated by women, but men now have a greater presence in those areas. There was a dramatic 50 per cent growth in the number of male part time employees. Among male employee jobs the proportion that were part time increased from 10 per cent in 1995 to 14 per cent in 2002. The expansion of female employment has been associated with men moving into areas of work previously dominated by women, rather than the other way round.

It is hard to say whether the growth of male part time work is driven by demand or by labour supply. The LFS shows that 50 per cent of part-time male employees are aged under 25 and 33 per cent are over 55 (LFS) - that is people who might not be available for full time work. This would suggest that in some cases employers have created the jobs in order to attract the available labour.

Contrast between public and private sector

In Table 4.4.3 "public administration education and health" stood out as different from other sectors. In Table 4.4.2, among the large sectors, it had the greatest difference between the growth of full and part time jobs. These industries are largely public sector (about 75 per cent of employee jobs in the industry are in the public sector) while in the rest of the economy the public sector accounts for less than 3 per cent of employee jobs. ⁶ We shall refer to these below as public and private sector respectively.

Some marked contrasts in the pattern of change emerge, as shown Table 4.4.5:

• Female employment in the private sector increased by only 1 per cent compared with 22 per cent in the public sector;
• For men the figures were 1 per cent in the public sector and 10 per cent in the private sector;
• Looking at full time employment, male employment in the public sector fell while in the private sector female employment fell.

There are marked difference between the sectors. In the public dominated industries:

• 40 per cent of jobs are part time compared with 28 per cent in the private sector industries;
• 72 per cent of employees are female compared with 43 per cent in the private sector (down from 45 per cent in 1995);
• 61 per cent of full time employees are female (up from 57 per cent) compared with only 31 per cent in the private sector (a fall from 32 per cent);
• 89 per cent of part time employees are female compared with 73 per cent in the private sector.

The male dominance of private sector jobs is reinforced, when the (mostly male) self employed are also considered. A further difference between public and private sectors emerges in the use of temporary workers, which is much greater in the public sector: 8 per cent of employees in 2002 compared to 6 per cent in the private sector. ⁷

Male-female wage differentials

The average hourly wage for women full time employees in Scotland is 9.93 compared with 11.76 per hour for men ⁸. This means that average female wages are now 84.4 per cent of the average for men - a gap of 15.6 per cent. Chart 4.4.4 shows that the gap has narrowed fairly steadily since 1992 when average female wages were just 76.9 per cent of average male wages.

The gap arises mostly because of segregation with women less likely to work in the types of jobs that are most highly paid. Although women have not moved into male sectors they have spread into higher paid occupations, and a greater share of professional jobs are held by women. As well as changes in occupational structure, the impact of the National Minimum Wage would have had a disproportionately positive impact on women's wages.

The earnings gap is generally smaller in Scotland than in Great Britain a whole, and Scotland has seen a greater narrowing of the gap. A comparison with other UK regions shows that the higher the average wage the greater the female/male wage differential. The gap is widest in London where there are relatively more highly paid jobs, predominantly filled by men.

Conclusion - mixed messages for women

Over the past decade employment grew faster for women than for men, though in the latter part of the decade the growth rates have been the same. Employment has grown faster in industrial sectors where women form the majority of the workforce. Growing female employment has not been associated with women moving into industrial sectors dominated by men. In fact the opposite has happened, with men filling a higher proportion of part time jobs, and a higher proportion of jobs in industries traditionally dominated by women, such as Distribution, Hotels and Restaurants and Financial services. The exception has been in Health, Education & Public Administration - dominated by the public sector - where growth of jobs has been strong and the share of jobs filled by women has increased from two thirds to nearly three quarters. In the rest of the economy the share of jobs filled by women has actually fallen, and among full time employee jobs the number has fallen in absolute terms.

Footnotes

1 With assistance from Gayle Johnston who provided all the Labour Force Survey data.

2 The Labour Force Survey records the number of people employed. This estimate includes employees, self employed, government trainees, and unpaid family workers. LFS figures for 2003 are available but most figures in the article are drawn from the Quarterly Employee jobs series for which the most recent data are for 2002. Please note that the Labour Force Survey data used in this article is weighted to be consistent with the 1991 census and therefore will be subject to revision when the Labour Force Survey is re-weighted to reflect the 2001 census later in 2004. Currently Labour Force Survey information based on the 2001 census is limited and does not enable analysis over a ten year period.

3 The population of working age is measured as being all those aged 16 to 64 for men and 16 to 59 for women.

4 Unemployment includes people who are either (i) Out of work and want a job, have actively sought work in the last 4 weeks and are available to start work in the next 2 weeks or (ii) Out of work, have found a job and are waiting to start in the next two weeks.

5 A simple calculation, assuming that part time jobs have, on average, half the hours of full time jobs would suggest that men in 2002 did about 54 per cent of hours worked by employees, unchanged from 1995.

6 The overall figure is approximately 26 per cent of employees in the public sector. Within the public administration, education and health category most of the private sector jobs are in health and many of them are local GP practices.

7 Source: LFS. Figures for 2003 show a grater contrast between 5 per cent of jobs in the private sector and 9 per cent of public sector jobs.

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