Archive:Key figures on the changes in the labour market
Data extracted in February 2022
Planned article update: 16 February 2023
Highlights
This article addresses the most significant changes in the labour market between the third quarter of 2021 and the third quarter of 2022, with two focuses on worked hours and on people starting a new job or leaving employment.
This overview of the changes to the labour market aims to answer the following questions: is the increase in the employment rate the same for younger and older workers or by level of education? Did people work more in Q3 2022 compared to Q3 2021? Why had people left their job in Q3 2022?
The analysis is carried out for the European Union (EU) as a whole, for the 27 EU Member States individually, for three EFTA countries (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) and for one candidate country (Serbia). It makes use of non-seasonally adjusted quarterly data from the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS).
Full article
Trends in employment
The population by labour status is analysed using the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) data. A closer look at the various categories acting on the labour market shows that age, sex as well as level of education are key factors for employment analysis but are important also for unemployed people or those outside the labour force.
In Q3 2022, 7 out of 10 persons aged 15-64 (70.2 %) are employed in the EU, 4.6 % are unemployed and 25.2 % are outside the labour force. The employment rate in Q3 2022 varies significantly among the different population groups as shown in Figure 1: there is a large gap (10 pp.) between the sexes with 75.2 % of employed men and 65.2 % of employed women. The same gap is recorded for those outside the labour force, with 20.2 % of men and 30.2 % of women not searching for a job, or not available to start within the following two weeks.
Considering different age groups, 53 % of men and 46.7 % of women aged 15-29 are employed, while the share increases to 88.5 % for men and 77.4 % for women aged 30-54, and decreases to 69.2 % for men and 56.6 % for women aged 55-64. In general, the older the people, the larger the employment gap between men and women. Looking at unemployment, it is the same for men and women, with a rate of 4.6 %, and reaches the highest value among young men aged 15-29 (6.9 %) and the lowest among women aged 55-64 (2.7 %). Furthermore, almost half of men and women aged 15-29 are outside the labour force against 7.5 % of men and 18.1 % of women aged 30-54, and 27.7 % of men and 40.6 % of women aged 55-64.
The level of education also affects significantly the employment rate. Figure 1 also compares people aged 30-64 by level of education and labour status in the EU. Lower levels of education are usually associated with lower employment rates. In Q3 2022, people with a low level of education report the lowest employment rates: 55.2 % of men and more than one third of women are employed (37.6 %). People with a medium level of education follow, with 78.1 % employed men and 66.4 % of employed women. The highest rates are recorded among men and women with a high level of education, with 88.9 % and 83.2 % respectively.
Between Q3 2021 and Q3 2022, the employment rate increased more for older people aged 55-64 (+1.8 pp. for women and + 1.6 pp. for men) than for younger people, who recorded increases from 1.2 pp. (reported by men aged 15-29) to 0.7 pp. (women aged 30-54). Another relevant finding is that the increase in the employment rate of older people aged 55-64 and of young people aged 15-29 is accompanied by a greater decrease in the share of people outside the labour force compared to the decrease in the unemployment rate.
Moreover, considering the level of education among people aged 30-64, the increase in the employment rate from Q3 2021 to Q3 2022 is more pronounced for those with a low level of education (+1.7 pp. for men and +1.3 pp. for women) compared to higher levels of education. The lowest increases have been recorded by men and women with a medium level of education, +0.4 pp. and +0.6 pp. respectively.
At national level (see Figure 3), in Q3 2022, the employment rate of people aged 15-64 is the highest in the Netherlands (81.9 %), Sweden (78.6 %), Malta (77.5 %) and Germany (77.3 %). On the contrary, countries with the lowest employment rates are Italy (60.3 %), Greece (61.9 %), Romania (63.4 %), Spain (64.8 %) and Croatia (65.1 %). Considering different age groups, the most engaged one with the highest employment rate is 30-54 with 82.9 % at the EU level. In Slovenia, 9 out of 10 people aged 30-54 are employed. Hungary, Czechia and Sweden follow, with respectively 89.2 %, 89.1 % and 88.2 % of employed people. Even the countries with the lowest employment rates, have higher values for this age group: Italy (74.3 %), Greece (77.4 %), Spain (78.4 %) and Romania (79.4 %) and Croatia (81.7 %) all have higher rates than the EU value (70.2 %) for the broader 15-64 age group.
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The youngest age group, 15-29 is the one registering the lowest employment rate, 49.9 % at EU level. This group is also the one with the highest participation in formal education, and struggling to enter the labour market. Countries where young people have harder times are: Italy with 34 % of employed young people, Greece with 35.2 %, Romania (36.8 %), Spain (39.4 %) and Bulgaria with 39.9 %. Instead, the Netherlands, Malta, Austria, Denmark, Germany and Sweden all have more than 6 out of 10 employed young people , with the Netherlands ranking first with an employment rate of 79.6 %.
These employment rates can vary depending on participation in formal education, in particular for young people aged 15-29, of which 49.7 % are in formal education (35.4 million) in the EU in Q3 2022.
Below is a comparison of employment of young people by participation in formal education, compared to the broader age group 30-54 (Figure 4).
Employment rates are 88 % and more in Malta and in the Netherlands for young people not in formal education in Q3 2022
At EU level, 73.5 % of youth aged 15-29 and not in formal education are employed in Q3 2022 against 25.9 % of those who are in formal education. As clearly visible in Figure 4, the employment rate of people aged 15-29 not participating in formal education reaches peaks over 88 % in Malta and in the Netherlands, and is higher than 70.8 % in all countries except Italy, Spain and Romania, where less than two thirds are employed, and Greece (67.5 %). Instead, the employment rate of young people in formal education varies significantly from one country to another, mainly with low values for most countries. In Q3 2022, the rate was lower than 20 % in 15 EU countries reaching the lowest values of 5.5 % in Slovakia and 2.6 % in Romania. The highest levels were reported in the Netherlands (73.6 %), Denmark (53.5 %), Austria (47.1 %), Finland (45.5 %) and Germany (44 %).
Furthermore, comparing the employment rates of people not participating in formal education and aged 15-29 with those aged 30-54 (either in or outside the formal education) gives an idea about the level of integration of young people in the labour market. The breakdown for participation in formal education hasn’t been considered for the 30-54 age group for very low values of people in formal education. At EU level, the difference between both categories reaches 9.4 pp.in Q3 2022, with people aged 30-54 having an employment rate of 82.9 % versus those aged 15-29 not in formal education, showing a rate of 73.5 %. The only EU countries where the employment rate of young people not in formal education exceeds the one of people aged 30-54 are Malta and the Netherlands with differences of 2.1 and 0.9 pp. respectively. Countries as Sweden, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Germany all have employment rates of young people not in formal education higher than 81.6 %, but lower - of at least 4.1 pp.- than the rate of people aged 30-54. By contrast, in Romania, Spain, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Estonia, Italy and Slovenia, the employment rate of people not in formal education is significantly lower for the age group 15-29 than for those aged 30-54 (with a difference of 12.7 pp. or more).
Working time: volume and patterns
Slight increase in worked hours in Q3 2022
The rate of increase in the total number of working hours in the EU slows down over the first three quarters of 2022 (see Figure 5). Compared with the same quarters of the previous year, the total number of hours of work in the EU was 5.6 % higher in Q1 2022, 2.3 % higher in Q2 2022 and 0.6 % higher in Q3 2022.
This pattern was reflected in most of the EU countries with growth rates decreasing from Q1 to Q2 and from Q2 to Q3 of 2022. Moreover, in some EU countries, the sign of the change was negative in Q2 and/or Q3 2022, marking a lower total number of working hours when compared with the same quarter of 2021, while negative changes between Q1 2021 and Q1 2022 were not observed. In Q2 2022, 6 EU countries recorded a decrease compared with Q2 2021, whereas this number of countries doubled in Q3 2022 when compared with Q3 2021.
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Between Q3 2021 and Q3 2022, the highest decrease in the total number of working hours was recorded in Czechia (-6.8 %), followed by Slovakia (-5.0 %), Slovenia (-3.8 %), Poland (-2.2 %) and Croatia (-1.7 %). On the other end of the scale, Cyprus (+4.6 %), Sweden (+3.6 %), Lithuania (+3.4 %), Spain (+3.2 %) and Hungary (+3.1 %), stood out with the highest increases in the EU.
Figure 6 shows that in most countries the percentage change between Q3 of 2021 and 2022 in the total number of working hours was the highest for people aged 55-64. The same was the case for the EU as a whole, where this change for people aged 55 to 64 years marked an increase of 2.7 %, whereas the rise for young people aged 15 to 29 years was lower at 1.7 %, and people aged 30 to 54 years marked a decrease of 0.4 %.
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What was the situation in different economic activities? In the EU, between Q3 2021 and Q3 2022, 15 sections of the economy (sections according to NACE Rev. 2) saw an increase in the total number of working hours for the corresponding employed people (see Figure 7). The highest increases were for section B - ‘Mining and quarrying’ (+5.4 %), I - ‘Accommodation and food service activities’ (+5.1 %) and L - ‘Real estate activities’ (+4.6 %). By contrast, 4 sections recorded decreases: A - ‘Agriculture, forestry and fishing’ (-3.2 %), O - ‘Public administration and defence, compulsory social security’ (-3.0 %), D - ‘Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply’ (-1.8 %) and C - ‘Manufacturing’ (-0.4 %).
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Part-time arrangements among younger and older workers
This section also investigates the use of part-time arrangements among older workers. The focus is on people aged 55-59 and on people aged 60-64 who are assumed to be closer to retirement in most countries. The underlying purpose is to assess a potential link between the employment rate of older people and the share of people working part-time, in other words: do older people still in employment have specific working time patterns? the higher the share of part-time employment, the higher the employment rate?
Figure 8 shows the total EU population in Q3 2022 broken down by age group (i.e. 30-54, 55-59 and 60-64), by level of education (i.e. low, medium and high) and by labour status. As shown in this figure, the employment rate of people aged 55-59 was 75.6 %, 7.3 pp. lower than the employment rate of people aged 30-54 (82.9 %). The decline is clearly more pronounced for people aged 60-64 who had an employment rate of 48.9 % in Q3 2022 (34.1 pp. below the rate of people aged 30-54).
- The employment rate of women aged 55-59 was around 3.5 pp. lower than those aged 30-54 for all levels of education but the decline amounted to 19.7 pp. for women aged 60-64 with a low level of education, to 31.2 pp. for those with a medium and 24.8 pp. for women aged 60-64 with a high level of education.
- For men, the decline in the employment rate between those aged 30-54 and men aged 55-59 was more pronounced for those with a low or a medium level of education (-6.6 pp. and -7.0 pp. respectively) compared with those with a high level of education (-3.8 pp.). This pattern is also visible between the employment rate of people aged 30-54 and aged 60-64: -24.6 pp. and -28.0 pp. for men with a low and a medium level of education and -19.2 pp. for men with a high level of education.
Furthermore, the share of part-time employment in the total EU employment aged 55-59 (17.9 %) is slightly higher than among people aged 30-54 (15.3 %) in Q3 2022. However, this difference is much larger compared with older workers aged 60-64: almost 1 in 4 employed people aged 60-64 (22.5 %) worked part-time regardless the level of education and sex. The analysis by sex shows that:
- Almost half of employed women aged 60-64 with a low level of education worked part-time (43.9 %) in Q3 2022 against 38.7 % and 27.7 % for women with a medium and a high level of education. These shares were, respectively, 6.4 pp., 9.2 pp. and 6.4 pp. higher compared with the shares of women aged 30-54.
- The picture differs substantially for men: around 1 in 10 men aged 60-64 worked part-time in Q3 2022 whatever the level of education. However, the increase between men aged 30-54 and men aged 60-64 is more visible among men with a medium and a high level of education (+ 6.7 pp. and + 6.6 pp.) than among men with a low level of education (+ 3.0 pp.).
Another interesting result is that more than one quarter of people aged 30-54 who were neither employed nor unemployed (28.7 %) did not search for employment but would have nevertheless liked to work, they were 16.9 % among those aged 55-59 and 6.8 % among those aged 60-64. The highest shares among older workers were recorded for men aged 55-59 and 60-64 with a low level of education (22.7 % and 10.5 %).
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Across EU countries, more employed people aged 60-64 worked part-time compared to those aged 55-59 in Q3 2022. This pattern is true for all countries for which data is available except for women in Italy where it was the opposite: the share of employed women aged 55-59 working part-time was higher than for women aged 60-64. However, a higher share of part-time employment does not seem to be linked with a higher employment rate among people aged 55-59 or aged 60-64 as shown in Figure 9.
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Starting or leaving a job between 25 and 54 years old
In Q3 2022, almost 8 % of employed people started their job in the last three months in Spain and Finland
In Q3 2022, slightly more than 7 millions of people aged 25-54, in the EU, had recently started a new job, at most 3 months earlier. The recent job starters stood for 4.9 % of the total employment in Q3 2022 against 5.1 % in Q3 2021. The share of recent job starters was significantly higher among people with a low level of education (7.4 % of the total employment) than for people with a medium or a high level of education (4.5 % and 4.6 %, respectively). In Q3 2022, only the recent job starters with a high level of education was still above their level of Q3 2021 (+ 0.1 pp.), those with a low and a medium level of education recorded a decrease in Q3 2022 compared to Q3 2021 (-0.5 pp. for those with a low level and -0.3 pp. for those with a medium level of education). This downward trend in the 3rd quarter of 2022 differed from the two first quarters in which the proportion of recent job starters in the total employment were above the 2021 levels for all categories (see Figure 10).
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As shown in Figure 11, in the EU, around 1 in 10 people working in elementary occupations in Q3 2022 (9.5 %) had started their job in the last 3 months. They were 6.5 % among service and sales workers but only 2.4 % among managers.
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In Spain, Denmark, Finland and Sweden, 7 % or more of employed people had started their job in the last 3 months in Q3 2022 (7.6 %, 7.6 %, 7.5 % and 7.0 % respectively) while they are less than 2 % in Slovakia and Romania. The downward trend recorded at EU level, was also visible in most EU countries: more than the half (15 countries exactly) recorded a lower level of recent job starters in Q3 2022 than in Q3 2021.
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Substantial increase in recent job leavers aged 25-54 leaving their job for education or personal reasons
In Q3 2022, around 3.5 million people aged 25-54 had left their job in the last 3 months and were no longer in employment across the European Union. Compared to the number of employed people in Q3 2022, the recent job leavers correspond to 2.4 % of the total employment. However, this percentage varied significantly by level of education: leaving their job would affect 4.4 % of the employed people with a low level of education but only 2.1 % for those with a medium and a high level of education.
In Q3 2022, among recent job leavers, 53.1 % had left their job because their fixed-term job had ended (see Figure 13). Again, this proportion changed according to the level of education: they were 57.1 % among recent job leavers with a low level of education, 47.5 % among those with a medium level of education and 56.3 % among those with a high level of education. There were significantly less people with a medium level of education who had left their job because of the end of their fixed-term contract (-4.8 pp.) compared with the situation one year before in Q3 2021. Leaving their job because of dismissal or business that closed for economic reasons was the second most frequent motive to leave the job (15.8 %), followed by the category 'other reason' (13.9 %), education or other personal reason (9.0 %) and finally, the 'family or care reasons' (care of relatives only) which were expressed by 8.2 % of people leaving their job in the last 3 months. A relevant finding is the clear increase recorded in the share of people who left their job for education or personal reason (+ 1.9 pp.) (e.g. taking care of friends or non-relatives, wanting more leisure time, travelling, moving, etc.). This increase was particularly visible among those with a low level of education (from 3.3 % in Q3 2021 to 5.9 % in Q3 2022 (+2.6 pp.)) and those with a high level of education (from 8.3 % in Q3 2021 to 10.8 % in Q3 2022 (+2.5 pp.)).
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Three EU countries encompassed almost the three quarters of the recent job leavers who had left their job for labour market reason in the EU (so those for whom their fixed-term contract had ended or who were dismissed), namely Spain (31.0 %), Italy (22.9 %) and France (19.6 %). Moreover, in Italy, Hungary, Greece and Spain, more than 80 % of people left their job for labour market reasons in Q3 2022 (89.9 % in Italy, 88.6 % in Hungary, 87.6 % in Greece and 81.6 % in Spain) as displayed on the map at the top of the article. Based on countries for which data is available, the picture was totally different in the Netherlands, Czech republic and Lithuania where less than one third of those who had left their job did it because of labour market reasons (27.3 %, 31.6 % and 32.3 %, respectively).
Recent job leavers as a percentage of not employed people may give an indication on the recent link of not employed people to employment. The situation of those who were unemployed or outside the labour force but had a recent working experience greatly differed from an EU country to another. The highest shares of not employed people who nevertheless worked in the last three months were reported by Spain (20.3 %), Finland (19.2 %), France (16.9 %), Estonia (15.6 %) and Austria (15.4 %). By contrast, less than 2 % of not employed people were recent job leavers in Slovakia and Romania (1.9 % and 1.8 %). In more than half EU countries (15 out of 27 countries exactly), the share of job leavers in the total of not employed people in Q3 2022 was below the Q3 2021 level (see Figure 14).
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Source data for tables and graphs
Methods and definitions
All figures in this article are based on non-seasonally adjusted quarterly results from the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS).
Data sources
Source: The European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) is the largest European household sample survey providing quarterly and annual results on labour participation of people aged 15 and over as well as on persons outside the labour force. It covers residents in private households. Conscripts in military or community service are not included in the results. The EU-LFS covers the same target populations and uses the same definitions in all countries, which means that the results are comparable between the countries. The EU-LFS is an important source of information about the situation and the trends in the national and EU labour markets. Each quarter around 1.8 million interviews are conducted throughout the participating countries to obtain statistical information for some 100 variables. Due to the diversity of information and the large sample size, the EU-LFS is also an important source for other European statistics like Education statistics or Regional statistics.
Coverage: The results from the survey currently cover all European Union Member States, the EFTA Member States Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, as well as the candidate countries Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey. For Cyprus, the survey covers only the areas of Cyprus controlled by the Government of the Republic of Cyprus.
In the analysis by economic activity and occupational group, only those activities and groups with more than 100 thousand employed people at EU level are taken into account.
European aggregates: EU and EU-27 refer to the totality of the EU of 27 Member States. If data are unavailable for a country, the calculation of the corresponding aggregates takes into account the data for the same country for the most recent period available. Such cases are indicated.
Country notes
In the Netherlands, the 2021 LFS data remains collected using a rolling reference week instead of a fixed reference week, i.e. interviewed persons are asked about the situation of the week before the interview rather than a pre-selected week.
Definitions
The concepts and definitions used in the EU-LFS follow the guidelines of International Labour Organization (ILO). In particular, employed people comprise: (a) persons who during the reference week worked for at least one hour for pay or profit or family gain; (b) persons who are not at work during the reference week but had a job or business from which they are temporarily absent.
The LFS employment concept differs from national accounts domestic employment, as the latter sets no limit on age or type of household, and also includes the non-resident population contributing to GDP and conscripts in military or community service but excludes the resident population working for non-resident enterprises.
More information
More information on the LFS can be found via the online publication EU Labour Force Survey, which includes eight articles on the technical and methodological aspects of the survey. The EU-LFS methodology in force from the 2021 data collection onwards is described in methodology from 2021 onwards. Detailed information on coding lists, explanatory notes and classifications used over time can be found under documentation.
Context
2021 was marked by the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and by an employment rate recording an upward trend. In the first semester of 2022, despite the Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the starting of the energy crisis, employment was still going up. However, the third quarter of 2022 showed the early signs of slowdown which were visible for young people aged 15-29 and people aged 25-54. Nevertheless, older workers aged 55-64 still recorded a substantial increase in their employment rate as the duration of working life has become longer in many countries. Furthermore, in the last years, it has been of interest to follow the development of the population according to the the three labour status i.e. employment, unemployment and people outside the labour force. Indeed, the variation in employment has been in some quarters mainly reflected by changes among people outside the labour force instead of unemployment.
Direct access to
- New measures of labour market attachment - Statistics in focus 57/2011
- Labour force survey in the EU, EFTA and candidate countries — Main characteristics of national surveys, 2020, 2022 edition
- Quality report of the European Union Labour Force Survey 2020, 2022 edition
- EU labour force survey — online publication
- European Union Labour force survey - selection of articles (Statistics Explained)
- LFS main indicators (lfsi)
- Unemployment - LFS adjusted series (une)
- Supplementary indicators to unemployment - annual data (lfsi_sup_a)
- Supplementary indicators to unemployment - quarterly data (lfsi_sup_q)
- Unemployment - LFS adjusted series (une)
- LFS series - Detailed annual survey results (lfsa)
- Total unemployment - LFS series (lfsa_unemp)
- Supplementary indicators to unemployment by sex and age (lfsa_sup_age)
- Supplementary indicators to unemployment by sex and educational attainment level (lfsa_sup_edu)
- Supplementary indicators to unemployment by sex and citizenship (lfsa_sup_nat)
- Total unemployment - LFS series (lfsa_unemp)
- LFS series - Detailed quarterly survey results (lfsq)
- Total unemployment - LFS series (lfsq_unemp)
- Supplementary indicators to unemployment by sex and age (lfsq_sup_age)
- Supplementary indicators to unemployment by sex and educational attainment level (lfsq_sup_edu)
- Total unemployment - LFS series (lfsq_unemp)
Methodology
Publications
- EU labour force survey — online publication
- Labour force survey in the EU, EFTA and candidate countries — Main characteristics of national surveys, 2020, 2022 edition
- Quality report of the European Union Labour Force Survey 2020, 2022 edition
- New measures of labour market attachment - Statistics in focus 57/2011
ESMS metadata files and EU-LFS methodology
- Employment and unemployment (Labour Force Survey) (ESMS metadata file — employ_esms)
- LFS series - detailed quarterly survey results (from 1998 onwards) (ESMS metadata file — lfsq_esms)
- LFS series - detailed annual survey results (ESMS metadata file — lfsa_esms)
- LFS ad-hoc modules (ESMS metadata file — lfso_esms)
- LFS main indicators (ESMS metadata file — lfsi_esms)
- LFS regional series (ESMS metadata file — reg_lmk)