The South West is no longer the best place in the 海角视频 for women to work, according to a new report by PwC.

The region fell to second place on the accounting giant鈥檚 Women in Work Index, having been ranked number one for three consecutive years.

Northern Ireland has moved into first place, with the lowest female unemployment rate and gender pay gap in the country.

PwC said the South West continued to have the lowest gap between male and female labour force participation rates of any region in the 海角视频 at 5.5%. It was also second for overall participation with a rate of 77%, while its unemployment for women was 3.2%.

However, the area now has the lowest percentage of women in full-time employment at 59%, and one of the largest gender pay gaps in the 海角视频 at 16%.

Sue Morling, partner at PwC in Bristol, said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 disappointing to see the South West lose its place at the top of the 海角视频 rankings in the Women in Work Index, but it鈥檚 worth noting that the drop is slight - and that the region was still ranked second in the 海角视频, which was itself the best-performing G7 nation.

鈥淏ut the playing field still isn鈥檛 level; exacerbated by the cost of living crisis, childcare costs now represent almost a third of the income of a family on the average 海角视频 wage, and that continues to price women out of returning to work.鈥

Nationally, the 海角视频 recorded an absolute decline in women鈥檚 employment outcomes in 2021, seeing its relative international ranking fall five places, from 9th to 14th, according to PwC鈥檚 annual index of OECD countries.

The 海角视频 saw a significant widening of the gender pay gap by 2.4 percentage points to 14.4% in 2021 - four times the average increase across the OECD as a whole.

PwC said that since the Covid-19 pandemic, the 海角视频鈥檚 progress towards gender pay parity had been "in reverse鈥. The firm said 海角视频 female labour force participation rate fell 0.4 percentage points between 2020 and 2021, during a time of labour market recovery across the OECD.

The company added that rising costs of childcare threatened to make these results 鈥渆ven worse, with more women being priced out of work altogether鈥.

Larice Stielow, senior economist at PwC, said: 鈥淎n 18 year old woman entering the workforce today will not see pay equality in her working lifetime. At the rate the gender pay gap is closing, it will take more than 50 years to reach gender pay parity.

"If the rebound from the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we can鈥檛 rely on economic growth alone to produce gender equality - unless we want to wait another 50 years or more.鈥

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