Background

Possession of a job is an important factor in people's lives, because it is from there that people find the
income for their sustenance and consequently their freedom and especially for the women, when they
are completely free to control their own income. With income acquired from employment, people, and
especially women, can have access facilitated their health and that of their children. Taking into account
the importance of employment in the lives of people, the survey asked respondents about their
employment status, specifically, whether asked if they had performed any work in the 12 months prior
to the interview date.However, in countries where most of the workforce is in the informal sector, as is
the case in Mozambique, measuring employment becomes more complicated. The difficulty results
mainly due to the fact that some of the work done by the respondents, especially the work carried out
on family farms or self-employed businesses are often not considered as employment and are not
reported as such. This can result in an underestimation of employment. For trying to avoid this
underestimation, a series of questions were asked to the respondents to find answers about
employment status in the last 12 months.

The information collected makes it possible to classify respondents into employees, those who say they
were working and those who had worked at some point during the 12 months prior to the 52
characteristics of the Interviewed Population inquiry. Of those who worked and who had worked,
information was also obtained on the type of work they did, whether the work was permanent
throughout the year, who they worked for, type of occupation, economic activities they performed and
type of income. Tables 3.5.1 and 3.5.2 present the percentage distribution of respondents by status of
employment, according to selected characteristics. A little more than half of the women (53%) do not
were employed in the 12 months prior to the survey, compared to just 14% of men. At differences
between rural and urban respondents are not significant. Among women, those of provinces of Gaza,
Tete and Niassa and Manica, are the ones that stand out with high percentages of women not employed
in the last 12 months. The percentage of those who were not employed in the last 12 months tends to
increase with the level of education and wealth. Among men as well as among women, unemployment
is higher among single people, of the younger ages.

young and childless compared to respondents from other marital statuses, older ages and those who
have children. One possible explanation for this is that some of the individuals in these categories are
still studying and have not yet entered the workforce. Tables 3.6.1 and 3.6.2 show that a very important
proportion of people employed during the 12 months prior to the survey worked in agriculture, 63%
among women and 41% among men. The other activities with significant percentages for women were
sales and services (24%) and for men, skilled craftsmanship (21%) and sales and service (23%). In
Mozambique, only 7% of men and 5% of women were professional administrative technicians. A little
over 80% of women in rural areas are involved in agricultural activity, while for men this percentage is
56%. In contrast, 42% of women in the areas urban workers work in commerce and services. Most
provinces, with the exception of Maputo City, Tete, Gaza and Maputo Province, women were more
involved in agricultural activity, while in four mentioned above, the majority of women were dedicated
to commerce and services. Among men, the most of the provinces of Niassa, Cabo Delgado, Nampula
and Zambézia were involved in the activities agricultural activities, while in the remaining provinces, the
trend was towards different activities, but with emphasis on in specialized manual activities and
commerce and services. Of people who have secondary education or more, 32% of women and 21% of
men have exercised professional, technical and administrative jobs, 40% of women and 27% of men
worked in sale and services. Participation in professional, technical and administrative activities, work
specialized manuals and trade and services, tends to increase with the level of wealth in both sexes.

Table 3.7 shows the pay patterns and employer type of women who worked in the 12 months preceding
the survey. It is noted that 62% of women who worked in the agriculture were not remunerated, 27%
were paid in cash only and only 3% were paid in cash money. For women who worked in non-
agricultural activities, the pattern is the opposite: 88% were paid in cash, 1% were paid in kind and only
4% received no remuneration. Both women who worked in agriculture and those who worked in non-
agricultural activities, most were self-employed, 82% and 59% respectively. As for the continuity of
employment throughout the year, for those who worked in agriculture, 63% said they worked
throughout the year, and 27% worked during a certain season. AND for those who worked in non-
agricultural activities, the majority, 68% worked all year and 21% did so occasionally.