Why women are key to solving the Channel Islands skills gap

But new research published by PwC Channel Islands highlights the untapped talent pool that already lives here, is educated and likely has many of the skills and experience that employers are looking for.

The Channel Islands Women in Work Index 2023 which calculates female economic empowerment across 33 OECD countries, reveals a pool of women in Jersey and Guernsey of working age and fit to work, who for a variety of reasons, are no longer economically active.

The Index places the ranking of Jersey and Guernsey the equivalent of 15th and 16th place in the worldwide Index. Luxembourg tops the Index in first place, followed by New Zealand and Slovenia. The UK is ranked 14th.

Why are women not working?

The reasons women opt out of work after the age of 25 are varied. Clearly some can afford not to work, or for personal reasons choose not to. However we believe it is more likely that a number of barriers are deterring women from returning to work after having children. The most critical of these is the cost of childcare.

UK research by Coram estimates the average cost of UK childcare is £285 per week for a full time child under the age of 2, or £13,695 per year. The UK is the third most expensive place for childcare in the OECD. In comparison, Jersey’s equivalent childcare costs are estimated by PwC to be over £400 per week and heading towards £20,000 a year. This presents a dilemma for parents who may lack the family support networks to help with childcare, and faced with costs of this scale, decide it is more cost effective for the mother to stay at home.

The motherhood penalty

Childcare costs are not the only factor deterring women from returning to work after having children. Many employers are unwilling to provide flexibility to parents who need to manage pre-school/school drop offs and pick ups. Consequently many women opt to work part time, and these are often in lower paid roles (evidenced by the gender pay gap). Part time workers tend to take longer to get promoted to senior, higher paid roles. Women are also more likely to shoulder the bulk of unpaid work such as caring and looking after the home. Jersey Community Foundation research revealed that women spend 71% more time on unpaid work than men in an average week

Women who are out of the workforce for an extended period may suffer from confidence issues and in a working world of rapid technology adoption, may feel their skills are less relevant and they have been left behind. Census data in Guernsey also shows an alarming number of women over the age of 50 who have quit the workforce early. This is a worrying trend given the ageing populations in both islands and low birth rates. Jersey’s birth rate of 1.2 per woman is well below the 2.1 replacement rate needed to maintain a population.

What actions should we take to encourage women back into work?

Actions for Government

• Develop a strategy to target ‘non employed’ talent pools and boost the numbers of economically active people
• Conduct a review of parental leave and childcare entitlements - evidence suggests Jersey lags other developed economies, but Guernsey is significantly behind
• Consider tax, childcare support or other incentives
• Provide free and easy to access upskilling/retraining for the most in-demand skills
• Put pressure on employers to be more open to flexible working and report gender pay gaps

Actions for Business

• Collect data on your current employee demographic, set targets and report for transparency
• Broaden recruitment strategy to target a wider pool - consider offering ‘back to work’ training for those who have been on extended career breaks
• Have a flexibility culture that benefits everyone, not just mothers.
• Review and test your organisation’s culture - is it a genuinely inclusive environment?
• The equality agenda should be leadership led and accountable, it should not be the remit of the HR team.