In the celebration of International Labour Day 2020, National Bureau of Statistics has revealed the statistics of labour force in the Maldives.
The total labour population of Maldives totals up to 151,706 with male employment in majority with 70.3% male employment to population ratio. While female employment to population ratio is 39.8%.
Even among the 47% local workers in the tourism industry only 3% were local female workers.
However, in Maldives there are higher female civil servants than male. In 2019, out of total 25,652 civil servants there was a majority of 16,079 female civil servants. This is 63% of the total civil servants in the country. Also, 2 percent rise from 2018.
In Maldives, majority of workers are expatriates with a total of registered 177,585 workers. Most of the expatriate workers belong to Bangladesh and India closely followed by Sri Lanka. Expatriates from Nepal and China are relatively low compared to the top 3 countries.
More than 40% of expatriates work in construction industry and less than 10,000 workers are occupied in the health and social sector.
National Bureau of Statistics has also noted that compared to January 2020, there is a significant fall in many industries in their retirement contribution during February and March 2020. It is assumed that this fall in the retirement contribution is due to redundancies caused by COVID-19 in many industries.
They have also highlighted that the job centre recorded more than 2,000 persons being impacted by COVID-19. Majority of impacted individuals were youth and men. Around 37% individuals reported no pay leave due to COVID-19, while 25% reported termination.
The government and relevant authorities are working on supporting business and reduce unemployment amid the pandemic.
Each year 1st May is celebrated as the day of labour globally. Workers in each field and sector are appreciated for the work. This day is being celebrated since May 1st 1886, when he U.S. labour union voted to go on a strike demanding a decrease in working hours from 15 hours to 8 hours.
