Socio-Economic Determinants of Labour Force Participation Rate in an Era of Gender Mainstreaming in Nigeria: Responses from Afikpo North, Nigeria

Abstract

The prevailing gender preferences in employment opportunities in Nigeria’s civil service are worrisome. Although by the virtue of Nigeria’s population, the potential female labour force is about 50% and the national labour force participation rate is about 67.4%, the male participation rate is 70.3% while that of female accounts for just 29.7%. This paper is an inquiry into the determinants of labour force participation in Ebonyi State civil service and made use of primary data collected through a well structured questionnaires. The data collected were analyzed using simple percentage and the hypotheses formulated were tested using logit regression technique. The findings show that educational attainment, wage rate and age are significant determinants of male labour force participation while wage rate, safety and educational attainment are significant determinants of female labour force participation. The study therefore recommends that government should provide subsidized education, ensure upward review of workers’ salaries and provide risk-free working conditions as a means of motivating people to participate actively in the labour force