180 million jobs for women at high risk globally

Washington:  As many as 180 million jobs for women are at high risk of being displaced globally due to new technologies like automation, IMF warned on Tuesday. The Fund urged the world leadership to endow women with requisite skills, close gender gap in leadership positions, bridge the digital divide and ease transition for workers. The world body said that the figures of massive potential job loss for women is based on its estimate of 30 countries, which includes 28 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries and Cyprus and Singapore.

It also rued that the new technologies could further drive down demand and reduce relative wages for the routine tasks that women perform, lowering returns from labour market participation. The IMF said its results indicate that, given the current state of technology, 10 per cent of the male and female workforce (54 million workers) in 30 countries (28 OECD member countries, Cyprus, and Singapore) is at a high risk (facing higher than 70 per cent likelihood of being automated) of being displaced by technology within the next two decades. A larger proportion of the female workforce is at high risk for automation than the male workforce (11 per cent versus 9 per cent), with 26 million female jobs potentially at stake in these countries.