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The latest Labor Force Survey conducted by the Statistical Institute of Belize reveals that the national unemployment rate stood at 9.2% in September 2021, a 4.5 percentage point decrease over the same period in 2020. The labor force consisted of 191,880 persons as of September 2021. Labor force participation has remained fairly constant since 2012, with the exception of a notable decrease between 2019 and 2020 due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The participation rate has since normalized to 61.9%.
Unemployment rate (% of labor force, 2021) [1]
Males dominate the Belizean workforce by a ratio of 3 to 2. Almost 50% of the labor force is below the age of 35, with the majority of females in the workforce between 12 and 35. Notably, the average male worker is not as young as his female counterpart, with the majority of males being 35 years or older. Close to 10% of the unemployed are women with at least a tertiary education, as opposed to only 4% of males with at least a tertiary education.
Labor force by age and gender (2021)
A major drawback is that there is little to no data on the gender distribution of workers who currently earn the minimum wage and/or their demographic profiles (e.g., single parents, etc.). However, raising the minimum wage could directly benefit female workers. Evidence from the United States shows that in states where the minimum wage is at or above US$8.25 an hour (the federal minimum wage is US$7.25), the gender wage gap is 41% smaller than in states where the minimum wage is lower. Higher wages may lead to shifts in recruitment policies in favor of more educated candidates, who are often women—nearly 30% of the female workforce has at least a tertiary education, compared to just 17% of the male workforce [2].
- Source: Source: Estimate for Belize from Labor Force Survey of September 2021. Estimates for other countries are modeled ILO estimates retrieved from the World Bank Databank, accessible here: https://databank.worldbank.org
- Source: Source: 2021. Belize Labor Force Survey. SIB. Available at: https://sib.org.bz
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