Just the job!

Nice work if you can get it… how women’s employment hit a high

Sa bad job – with a surge in women in the Midlands having careers and professional qualifications since the Eighties, national survey research shows.

More women are in work as opposed to staying at home with the kids, and more are in higher education, according to an analysis of 30 years of census figures.

Just 43 per cent of women in the Midlands –

1.5 million – worked in 1981. But that shot up to 53 per cent – 2.8 million – with a job in 2011, when the last census was conducted.

The census is a survey of the populations of England and Wales that takes place every ten years. The information it gathers helps decision makers assess communities’ needs and plan public services such as healthcare, education and job schemes.

Businesses use the information to decide where to set up – so creating employment. The census also reveals trends in everything from work to education.

Sexual equality may have done a reasonable job so far, but it has a way to go, with women still lagging behind men in the job stakes: men in the Midlands remained more likely to be employed in 2011, with 62 per cent –

3.1 million – in work.

While changing attitudes to women as homemakers and workers have resulted in fewer females choosing to look after their family full time rather also much more likely to get a degree or similar qualification. In 1981, women made up 42 per cent of adults in the Midlands with degrees and professional qualifications. By 2011, 51 per cent of adults in the region with a ‘level 4’ qualification or above (degrees, higher degrees and workrelated qualifications) were female.

The next census is on March 21 but the question is: will it reveal that equality has done a better job for women in work?

53% of women in the Midlands worked in 2011 compared to 43% in 1981