Over 180 mn jobs for women at high risk of being displaced globally: IMF

Jobs are likely to grow in traditionally female-dominated sectors.

As many as 180 million jobs for women are at high risk of being displaced globally due to new technologies like automation, the IMF warned Tuesday.

The global financial institution 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.

In a note released during the annual International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank meetings in Bali, 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.

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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.

Less well-educated and older female workers (aged 40 and older), and those in clerical, service, and sales positions are disproportionately exposed to automation.

"Extrapolating our results, we find that 180 million female jobs are at high risk of being displaced by automation globally," the IMF said. (Business Standard )

In its discussion note, the IMF rued that women are under-represented in sectors anticipating jobs growth, where technological changes can be complementary to human skills.

As such it called for endowing women with the requisite skills, closing the gender gap in leadership positions, bridging the digital divide and easing transition for workers.

Women, it said, appear less endowed with some of the skills needed to thrive in the digital era: they are currently under-represented in sectors anticipating jobs growth, such as engineering and Information and Communications Technology. At the same time, there are some bright spots, it noted... Read More