Women's share of Afghan labour market shrinks to 5% under Taliban, UN says

Geneva has revealed that women's share of the Afghan labor market has plummeted to a mere 5% since the Taliban seized power five years ago, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). The report published by the ILO calls for measures to address the "severe exclusion" that women face in the workforce. Female labor force participation has plummeted to less than a third of its previous level, standing at 5.1% in 2026, down from 16.5% in 2020. In stark contrast, male employment has surged dramatically, the ILO stated.

Tite Habiyakare, the senior coordinator and head of the ILO Office for Afghanistan, emphasized that Afghanistan cannot establish a resilient labor market while such a large portion of its population remains excluded from economic activity. The report attributes the decline in women's participation to the Taliban's restrictions on women's education and employment opportunities. Afghanistan holds the second-lowest level of female employment globally, trailing only Yemen, the ILO pointed out.

Despite this bleak picture, the number of women-owned businesses has surged tenfold since the Taliban takeover, given their exclusion from many other professions, as reported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The overall employment situation in Afghanistan has improved, with a 14% increase from a 2022 low, reaching 8.5 million jobs in 2026, as per the ILO's findings.

However, this growth has struggled to keep pace with the rapid population growth, compounded by the large-scale return of Afghans from neighboring countries such as Pakistan, according to the report.