Crisis widens job market gender gap for women: ILO

GENEVA (AFP) - Women have always faced higher unemployment rates than men, and the sluggish global economy in recent years has only made the situation worse, the International Labour Organisation said on Tuesday.

On a global scale, women saw their unemployment rate close somewhat on that of men in the 1990s, but the financial crisis since 2008 have reversed that trend, the UN's labour organisation said in a report.

"Gaps that already existed before the crisis have increased after the crisis," said former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, who heads the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

She presented ILO's "Global Employment Trends for Women 2012" report, which showed that women's worldwide unemployment rate from 2002 to 2005 stood at 5.8 per cent, while 5.3 per cent of men were registered as unemployed.