Among the population aged 15 to 74 in the European Union (EU), 224 million were employed in 2016, 21 million were unemployed and 135 million were economically inactive.
Around 8 in every 10 of those employed in the EU worked full-time and 2 in 10 part-time. Among these 45.3 million people working part-time, 9.5 million were underemployed, meaning they wished to work more hours and were available to do so. This corresponds to a fifth (20.9%) of all part-time workers and 4.2% of total employment in the EU in 2016. Two thirds of these underemployed part-time workers were women (65%).
Largest share of underemployed part-time workers in Greece, lowest in the Czech Republic
In 2016, the proportion of underemployed part-time workers among total part-time workers varied significantly across the EU Member States. A majority of part-time workers aged 15 to 74 wished to work more hours in Greece (74.1%), Cyprus (63.7%) and Spain (50.7%), closely followed by Portugal (45.1%) and Slovakia (43.5%).
At the opposite end of the scale, the Czech Republic (8.0%), Malta (10.8%), Luxembourg (11.9%), the Netherlands (12.0%), Estonia (12.5%) and Germany (12.6%) registered the smallest shares of underemployed part-time workers.
It should be noted that underemployed part-time workers were predominantly women in every EU Member State except Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus.
The source dataset can be found here.
This information is complemented by an online article and an infographic on underemployment and potential additional labour force statistics.
For more information:
Eurostat website section dedicated to the EU Labour Force Survey (LFS).
Eurostat database on EU-LFS results.
Main concepts and definitions of the EU-LFS.
Eurostat news release 69/2017 of 25 April 2017 on Europe 2020 employment indicators.