Fewer job opportunities for women in county (From Western Telegraph)

Fewer job opportunities for women in county

Women have less professional opportunities in Pembrokeshire than most parts of England and Wales.

A league table by The Local Futures Group shows that the county comes 117th out of 145.

Each area of Britain was scored according to a combination of knowledge economy job opportunities for women plus womens income levels for the locality.

Around 23% of industry nationally involves a workforce employed in health care, education and professional jobs, classed as knowledge economy.

The report concludes with the prediction that unless the Government promotes a strong knowledge economy around the UK regions and nations, the existing divides in womens career opportunities are likely to become even more polarised.

The stronger the business base of the knowledge economy, the more opportunities there will be for women and for better career moves.

The Thames corridor provides a powerful job escalator, while Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan are the top 30, says the report. But Pembrokeshires poor performance shows that this part of Wales is relatively weak on womens opportunities.

By 1996/97, more than half the graduates were women, but as much as 80% of womens employment at present does not require a degree. Only four of the top 20 female occupations require their employees to have degree level qualifications and these are dominated by teaching and health.

Despite the fact that more women than men now qualify with degrees and women often do better educationally across the board, barriers still persist.