Women’s Day: Not banking or aviation, THESE sectors were better recruiters in last 3 years

A recent survey by Sustain Labs Paris has shown that Information Technology sector and Retail trade sector are two employers who recruited the highest number of women in the past three years. 

Defeating Aerospace and defence and Banking sector, Information Technology hired a whopping 34% women for jobs in this sector in 2021-2022. The sector maintained a high streak over the past three years wherein it hired 32% and 34% women in 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 respectively. 

This was followed by Retail trade who hired 23% women in 2019-2020, 27% women in 2020-2021, and 25% women in 2021-2022.  

Relatively Aerospace and defence recorded a hiring rate at 24% in the year 2019-2020, 23% in 2020-2021, and 24% in 2021-2022. The Sustain Labs Paris survey also shows that Banking sector marked a marginal rise in their percentage of women recruitment- 26% in 2019-2020, 25% in 2020-2021, and 26% in 2021-2022.

Even in its low rise, Pharmaceuticals also showed a surge in female employment- 16% in 2019-2020, 16% in 2020-2021, and this jumped to a 20% in 2021-2022. 

March 8 is celebrated as International Working Women's Day, however, increasing number of Women seem to be dropping out of the employment sector. According to the latest World Bank figures, from 2021, fewer than 1 in 5 Indian women work – at least formally.

Meanwhile, the Miscellaneous sector showed a employment graph which went from 12% in 2019-2020 to 29% in 2021-2022. The lowest female employment rate was recorded by the Automotive sector - 4% in 2019-2020, 5% in 2020-2021, and  5% in 2021-2022. 

On this International Women's Day, it is crucial to highlight that there are less women than men working across all sectors. 12 of the 17 sectors have less than 20% women.

the deplorable condition of women employment comes at the backdrop of the fact that by 2030, India is predicted to be the third-largest economy in the world, behind only the US and China. 

In 2022, Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) deputy governor Dr. Michael Debabrata Patra had also pointed out that women's participation in the national workforce is the lowest in India. Data published in 2022, showed that in the pre-pandemic times the female labour participation level rate was 42%, which dropped to 39.9% in the post pandemic era. 

Painting a rather contrasting picture the Union Budget 2022 had stated that in 2022, Women's employability stood at 51.44%, compared to 41.25% in 2021.