The government has released the results of a survey looking at women in the workforce and how Hong Kong residents use their time, showing that most people are satisfied with their schedule, and that the city’s female homemakers show untapped workforce potential.
The survey, conducted between Setember. and December 2013, looked at over 26,000 people aged 15 and above, excluding foreign domestic workers. The Women’s Commission and the Labour and Welfare Bureau (LWB) commissioned the Census and Statistics Department to perform the study.
Women on average spend 2.7 more hours on unpaid work such as homemaking activities, volunteering and doing favours for friends or family outside of their households.
Men on the other hand perform 4.1 hours of paid work per day on average, more than women’s 2.8 hours. (Now wouldn’t that be the life?)
Women are also more likely to be interested in taking formal classes to further their education or to improve their vocational skills, with 15.1 percent of women versus 12.9 percent of men saying they’d be interested.
Men and women are similarly satisfied with the allocation of their time, with more than half of those surveyed reporting that they were content.
Out of the 637,500 female homemakers surveyed, 6 percent said they would definitely or very likely take a job, part-time or full-time, if they were given the opportunity. Another 11 percent said they “might” do so.
The top three factors that female homemakers would look at in considering a job would be office hours, salary and number of working hours. Jobs that allow for flexibility, responsibility sharing and working from home would also raise female homemakers’ interest in taking a job.
“The survey findings indicated that there was still room for releasing the labour potential of women and raising the female labour force participation rate,” said a spokeperson for the LWB.
The spokesperson added that the government respects women’s decision whether to join the workforce or to be a homemaker.
With that said, the LWB will work to improve support services in order to “remove the barriers for women and create an enabling environment for them to enter the labour market, including working full-time, part-time and work at home”.
Such services include childcare services, promoting family-friendly work policies, improving work training services.
Photo: Wayne Wong via Flickr
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