This thesis focu ses on the relationship between fertility and female labor forcernstatus in Akaki town. The study was based on a sample survey of 1475 eligible womenrnbelonging to the three female labor force status categories, namely, formal, informalrnand no work categorid. Women were classified as eligib le if they were aged 15-49.rncurrently married, living with their first husband, fecund and had at least one livernbirth.rnThe th esis discu sses the sarrpling procedure employed and the quality of data;rnand examines the interrelationship between fer tility and female labor force status usingrnbi-variate and multi- va riate stat istical techniques of data analysis. Multiplernclass ification analysis (MeA) and the log linear models were used in the multi-variaternanalyses. The Bongaarts model was also employed in order to show therninterrelationship be tween female labor force status, fertility and some of the proximaternvariables.rnFertility measured by children ever born was treated as the dependent variablernand female labor force status (classified into formal, informal and no-work) wasrntreated as the indep'endent variable. Other variables such as age at first marriage,rncontraceptive use, duration of breast-feeding (in months), education, family type,rnchildhood place of re sidence, husband's income and occupation were used as control.rnThe findings indicate that fertility is inversely related to work of women in thernformal labor force status category where as it is positively associated to work ofrnwomen in the informal labor force status group. No definite relationship betweenrnfemale labor force status and fertil ity was observed in the case of women in the noworkrncategory. Longer birth interval, higher contraceptive use, shorter duration ofrnbreast-feeding and lower desired family size were observed for women in the formalrnsector whi le for women in the informal sector, shorter birth interval, longer lactationalrnperiod, lower contraceptive use and higher desired fami ly size were observed. Resultsrnwere not consistent for non-working women .rn. Finally, the study concluues by suggesti ng some policy implications forrnintervention in areas of fertility and labor force participation as well as the need forrndetailed research in the same area.