Archive:Employment rates – annual statistics
The employment rate gives information on the proportion of the adult population that has a paid job (or, more technically, is an employed person). The pay can be in cash or in kind, and the job can be as an employee, as self-employed, or as a family worker. As gainful employment in most cases is the main basis for a sufficient living standard for each person, the employment rate gives an indication about the social and economic conditions on individual level in a country. It also describes to what extent the human resources of a country are utilised for economic purposes, and thereby also provides key macroeconomic information.
Most of the EU Member States have set targets for the value of the employment rate in 2020, as part of the EU 2020 strategy. This article will compare the main indicator employment rate in 2015 in the different EU Member States with these national targets , alongside a range of other breakdowns of the detailed series of the employment rate.[1]
Main statistical findings
As is clearly seen in Figure 1, there are notable differences among countries in the 2015 employment rate, with a spread from under 60 per cent to over 80 per cent. Some geographical patterns, at least for the low and middle ranking countries, are quite clear. Employment rates of less than 60 per cent are found in Greece, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Turkey, clearly clustered in the south-eastern corner. The group with an employment rate between 60 and 69 per cent comprises countries predominantly in the east or the south but also includes Ireland and Belgium. Germany, France and the United Kingdom are part of the middle-high group, as well as most northern countries. Finally, there are three countries (Sweden, Iceland and Switzerland) which have an employment rate at 80 per cent or over.
National employment rate targets
The Europe 2020 strategy target is to reach a total employment rate for people aged 20 to 64 of at least 75% in the EU by 2020. This objective has been translated into national targets in order to reflect the situation and possibilities of each Member State to contribute to the common goal. The target level varies considerably among the countries, stretching from 62.9 per cent in Croatia to 80 per cent in Denmark, Netherlands, and Sweden.
When comparing the employment rate of the different Member States to the national targets (see Figure 2), we find that four member states have in the past been at the prescribed level, but are now below it (Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland, and Latvia), and another four member states reached or exceeded the target level in 2015 (Germany, Estonia, Lithuania, and Sweden). It is worth noting that Sweden therefore is in the exclusive position of having both the highest target and at the same time having achieved it five years before the schedule.
Goal attainment levels
Click for animation
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_emp_a) and EU2020 national targets
From 2002 to 2015, the employment rate at EU-28 level increased by 3.4 percentage points, from 66.7% to 70.1%. An increase is recorded in 22 Members States. The exceptions are Greece, Spain, Ireland, Cyprus, Portugal and Denmark. The increase is higher than 10 pp in Bulgaria, Malta and Poland.
Looking in more details at the trend between2002 and 2015 in Figure 2, we find that on the level of the EU-28 average, the boom years before 2008 and the crisis afterwards are visible, but not very marked. This almost flat line is of course a result of very different situations in the individual Member States.
From the 22 Member States with an increase in the employment rate, the overall development of the employment rate since 2002 is relatively stable in eleven Member States, not showing any large increase before 2008 nor any large drop afterwards. This group includes, in addition to Slovakia and Slovenia, four large Member States (France, Italy, Romania, United Kingdom), as well as two Nordic Member States (Sweden, Finland) and the Benelux countries.
The three Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) all show a massive rise, then a massive drop, followed by a gradual but strong recovery.
Bulgaria, having a massive rise in the employment rate, followed by relatively stable period afterwards, cannot be classified with any other Member State.
Six Member States show growth throughout the whole period under consideration, some of them even with very marked improvement: this clear growth cluster consists of Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Malta.
Five of the six Member States with a drop in the employment rate between 2002 and 2015 have all encountered a marked drop during the crisis years (especially for Greece, Ireland, and Spain but also for Cyprus, and Portugal). In Denmark, there is also a downward trend, but much smaller, and from a markedly more favourable starting point.
Employment rate by sex
A substantial number of countries have a large untapped workforce among the women. Figure 3 shows the gender gap, as well as the employment rate levels of men and women in each country. The left side of the bars show the employment rate of women, and the right side of the bars show the employment rate of men. That means the longer the bar, the larger the gender gap. The countries are ranked on the employment rate of women, which means the higher up in the chart, the higher the employment rate for the women in the country. The lower part of the chart, meaning low employment rates for women, is clearly dominated by southern and eastern countries. Long bars, meaning large gender gaps, are found for Turkey, Macedonia, Greece, Italy, Malta, Romania, and the Czech Republic. Short bars, gender equality, is most developed in Finland and Lithuania. The undisputed highest employment rate for women is in Iceland, with Sweden, Germany, and Denmark as the highest ranked EU member states.
Employment rate by age, 2006 and 2015.
In addition to increasing the employment rate of women, a clear policy target in the European Union has been to also increase the employment rate of older persons. Under the hypothesis that the employment rate of younger persons is at least stable, it should help to increase the total employment rate..
From 2006 to 2015, the employment rate at EU-28 level of people aged 55-74 increased. An increase is recorded in 24 Members States. The exceptions are Greece, Cyprus, Portugal and Romania.
As shown in figure 4.2, only eight countries show an increased employment rate both for the younger (here defined as persons aged 15-34) and for the older (55-74), with Germany as the country with the largest change. For the majority of countries (19 of them in total, in chart 4.1), we see that the increase in the employment rate for the older persons is associated with a decrease of the employment rate of the younger persons. The effect, a parallel shift of the graph lines of 2006 and 2015, is most visible in Italy, Spain, Ireland, and the Netherlands, but is also to some extent existing in all the other countries in chart 4.1. The countries in the chart are ranked on the absolute effect of the decrease for younger persons plus the increase of older persons (Italy as the first, Spain as the second, Iceland as the last).
We also find two other groups in chart 4.2, a trio (Greece, Cyprus, and Portugal) which has an overall downward trend, and Romania on its own, which shows a marginal increase for the younger persons while having a decrease for older persons.
Data sources and availability
Source: the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) is a large sample, quarterly survey providing results for the population in private households in the EU, EFTA and the candidate countries. Conscripts in military or community service are not included in the results. Reference period: Yearly results are obtained as averages of the four quarters in the year. Coverage: France: Since the first quarter of 2014 the overseas departments of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyane, and La Réunion are covered, in addition to the metropolitan territory. Overseas department are included in the results of the detailed series, but not in the results of the main indicator. Cyprus: The survey covers only the areas of Cyprus controlled by the Government of the Republic of Cyprus. Country codes: Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), the Czech Republic (CZ), Denmark (DK), Germany (DE), Estonia (EE), Ireland (IE), Greece (EL), Spain (ES), France (FR), Croatia (HR), Italy (IT), Cyprus (CY), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Hungary (HU), Malta (MT), the Netherlands (NL), Austria (AT), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Romania (RO), Slovenia (SI), Slovakia (SK), Finland (FI), Sweden (SE), the United Kingdom (UK), Iceland (IS), Norway (NO), Switzerland (CH), the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (MK), Turkey (TR). The abbreviation MK used for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is a provisional code which does not prejudice in any way the definitive nomenclature for this country, which will be agreed following the conclusion of negotiations currently taking place on this subject at the United Nations. European aggregates: EU refers to the sum of EU-28 Member States and EA to the sum of the 19 euro area 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.
Definitions: The concepts and definitions used in the survey follow the guidelines of the International Labour Organisation. Employment covers persons aged 15 years and over (16 and over in Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom, 15-74 years in Estonia, Latvia, Hungary, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark, and 16-74 years in Iceland), living in private households, who during the reference week performed work, even for just one hour, for pay, profit or family gain, or were not at work but had a job or business from which they were temporarily absent, for example because of illness, holidays, industrial dispute or education and training. 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. Definitions of indicators reported in this publication are available on the EU-LFS Statistics Explained website: EU Labour Force Survey (Statistics Explained)
Context
The article on Labour market and Labour force survey (LFS) statistics presents a series of other annual results of the LFS. For deeper insight into the labour market, this article should also be read together with Unemployment statistics and Underemployment and potential additional labour force statistics. The main source for the employment rate calculation is the labour force survey (LFS). The results from the survey currently cover all European Union member states, the EFTA member states of Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, as well as the candidate countries Turkey and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The survey is based on the same target populations and uses the same definitions in all countries, which means that the results are comparable between the countries. Five different articles on detailed technical and methodological information is linked from the overview page EU labour force survey.
The 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. The EU-LFS is an important source of information about the situation and trends in the EU labour market.
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.
- ↑ Please note that Eurostat provides two versions of the annual employment rate, which serve different purposes, and which in some cases differ from one another:
- Main indicators, which are adjusted. It is one of the headline indicators under the EU2020 Strategy, and is as such used for monitoring the EU2020 national targets, but have only a few breakdowns. It normally refers only to the age group 20-64. Please also note that for France the main indicator excludes overseas departments.
- Detailed quarterly and annual results. These are not adjusted, but have a large number of breakdowns, and can therefore be used for more detailed analysis. These include the French overseas departments.