More female in labor force key to offsetting Asia’s declining demographics – study

MANILA, Philippines - A new report by MasterCard highlights that the economic growth of a market is closely tied with the opportunity offered to half its population – women – and besides access to education, more needs to be done in order to achieve equality and empowerment for this segment.

The report titled ‘Women Power and Economic Growth in Asia’ examines the contribution to economic growth made by women through a detailed analysis of women’s labor force participation in the key economies of East, Southeast and South Asia. Specifically, the study which looks at 17 markets  in Asia aims to identify the role of education in boosting labor productivity.

“There is an urgency to better understand how women’s labor force participation can be raised in a region as diverse as Asia. While markets such as Japan and South Korea are ageing surprisingly fast, others such as Cambodia and Myanmar are just stepping onto the global stage as they embrace economic reform. Across all these markets, raising women’s labor force participation rate offers the obvious solution to achieving economic development,” said Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, Global Economic advisor, MasterCard.

Comparing historical data between enrollment in secondary and tertiary education with labor force participation rates, the report identifies that there is a clear and positive relationship between rates of secondary education enrolment and productivity per employee.

This means that in addition to education, a range of factors impacting the economic contributions made by women in the workforce need to be addressed including country-specific socio-cultural factors, traditional beliefs, and government policies.

Simon Ogus said, “The good news from this brief survey is that a couple laggards aside, East and South Asia have successfully boosted the education levels of both men and women over the past four decades, and have hence seen labor productivity levels rise in tandem,”