Archive:Employment in detail - quarterly statistics

Data extracted in February 2022

Planned article update: April-May 2022

Highlights

In the third quarter of 2021, in the EU, 9 % of employed people aged 20-64 were own-account workers and 4 % were employers while 86 % were employees.

At EU level, almost two thirds of skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers (65 %) and almost one third of the managers (31 %) were self-employed in the third quarter of 2021.

In Q3 2021, the gender employment gap was the narrowest for the second generation of migrants having at least one parent born in a EU country (3.3 p.p.).

In the first three quarters of 2021, the health measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic were progressively lifted before the new COVID variant's arrival. At that time, the economy started its recovery phase and many EU governments announced the upcoming partial or complete cancellation of the specific working arrangements or other financial support aimed at mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on employment.

In light of this situation, this article looks at the short- and long-term development of the number of employed people by professional status (with namely a distinction between self-employed people with and without employees) to identify the consequences of the crisis on self-employment and of the halt in the financial support provided to the enterprises across the EU Member States. It also develops a complete and relevant profile of self-employed people in the EU according to the sex, age and educational attainment level, and explores the sectors of economic activity and groups of occupations with the largest share of self-employed people.

The situation of people combining several jobs, working outside their country of residence or having a migrant background is also looked at, in order to enrich the analysis of employed people at EU and country level.

The present article complements the article on employment; both articles use the quarterly results of the European Union Labour Force Survey (LFS) and are part of the publication Labour market in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Note: Given the level of detail, the data used in this article are not seasonally adjusted.

Full article

Self-employment: outline and last developments

Two thirds of self-employed people are own-account workers, one third are employers

In the third quarter of 2021, the vast majority of people in employment in the EU were employees, i.e. 86.2 % among people aged 20-64. The biggest remaining part of employed people were self-employed people (13.2 % among people aged 20-64 at EU level). Greece (27.4 %), Italy (19.3 %) and Poland (18.4 %) recorded the highest shares of self-employment in total employment. By contrast, the lowest shares were found in Germany (7.6 %), Luxembourg (7.9 %), Denmark (8.1 %) and Sweden (8.7 %).

Self-employed persons can be divided into two categories, i.e. the self-employed persons with employees (employers) and the self-employed persons without employees (own-account workers), see Figure 1a and 1b respectively. In the EU, in Q3 2021, more than two thirds of self-employed persons (68.2 %) were own-account workers while 31.8 % were employers. This last group accounted for 4.2 % of the total employment at EU level and for 5 % or more in Greece (7.8 %), Croatia (5.9 %), Italy (5.4 %), Estonia and France (both, 5.0 %). By contrast, less than 2 % of employed people were employers in Romania (1.2 %), Lithuania (1.6 %) and Cyprus (1.9 %). With regard to own-account workers, these stood for 9.0 % of the employed people at EU level and reached more than 13.0 % in Greece (19.6 %), Poland (14.3 %) and Italy (13.8 %) but less than 6 % in Germany (3.8 %), Denmark (4.8 %), Luxembourg (5.1 %), Sweden and Croatia (5.5 %).

The last category of employed people consists of contributing family workers. This professional status is relatively marginal at EU level (0.6 %).

Comparing the third quarter of 2021 with the same quarter of 2009 and 2019, the share of employers in total employment at EU level dropped by 0.5 p.p. from 2009 (from 4.7 % to 4.2 %) but remained stable compared with 2019. Cyprus (-3.3 p.p.), Ireland (-1.9 p.p.), Czechia (-1.3 p.p.) and Hungary (-1.1 p.p.) recorded the largest decreases from Q3 2009 to Q3 2021 while six EU Member states recorded an increase during the same period (Latvia: +1.1 p.p., Estonia: +0.9 p.p., Croatia, Malta and France: all +0.5 p.p. and Poland: +0.1 p.p.).

Looking at the evolution for the own-account workers over the same period, their share in the total employment decreased from 10.2 % in Q3 2009 to 9.0 % in Q3 2021 (-1.2 p.p.). Between the two quarters, the share of own-account workers fell by more than 2 p.p. in Romania (-7.4 p.p.), Croatia (-6.5 p.p.), Portugal (-4.4 p.p.), Cyprus (-3.0 p.p.), Germany and Italy (both, -2.3 p.p.). By contrast, it increased in half of the EU Member States, although to a limited extent, as the highest increase was +2.2 p.p. in Latvia.

Figure 1a: Self-employed people with employees (employers) by country in Q3 2009, 2019 and 2021
(in % of total employment, aged 20-64, not seasonally adjusted data)
Source: Eurostat (lfsq_egaps)

Figure 1b: Self-employed people without employees(own-account workers)by country in Q3 2009, 2019 and 2021
(in % of total employment, aged 20-64, not seasonally adjusted data)
Source: Eurostat (lfsq_egaps)

Self-employment more frequent among male workers, and aged 55-64

Figure 2 shows that, in the EU during the third quarter of 2021, men were more likely to be self-employed than women: 16.4 % of employed men were self-employed against 9.5 % for women. Considering the subcategories of self-employment, i.e. those with employees (employers) and those without employees (own-account workers), 73.7 % of self-employed women were own-account workers against 65.5 % of self-employed men. Then, one third of self-employed men and one quarter of self-employed women were employers.

Figure 2: Employed people by professional status, age group and educational attainment level, EU, Q3 2021
(in % of total employment, not seasonally adjusted data)
Source: Eurostat (lfsq_egaed) and (lfsq_esgaed)

The fact that self-employment is clearly more common among employed men than among employed women can be observed for every age group and educational attainment level (see Figure 2). Furthermore, there are more self-employed among employed people aged 55 to 64 compared to the other age groups (15-24 and 25-54). In Q3 2021, at EU level, 22.6 % of employed men aged 55-64 were self-employed against 15.8 % of employed men aged 25-54 and 4.5 % aged 15-24. Among employed women aged 55-64, 11.4 % were self-employed against 9.5 % aged 25-54 and 2.7 % aged 15-24. This pattern was observed for the total but also for each specific category of educational attainment level.

Differences in the professional status between the three levels of education i.e. low, medium and high level of educational attainment (see methodological notes for their description), are smaller than the ones observed for the age or gender groups. Nonetheless, self-employment appears to be more frequent among employed men and women with a low educational attainment level than among employed people with a medium level, and this is true for men and women, aged 25-54 and aged 55-64, but not for those aged 15-24.

Overall, considering people of the same age and sex, the gaps between the shares of self-employed people in different educational attainment levels are always lower than 4 p.p. The only exception can be found between self-employed men aged 55-64 with a low and a medium level of education. Those with a low level of education accounted for 24.7 % while those with a medium level for 20.4 % (of total employment in the same age and with the same level of education).

The prevalence of being employers or own-account workers slightly differs from a category of education to another. The only significant difference is about women and men aged 55-64 with a high level of education who are more likely employers than their counterparts with a lower level of education. The differences do not exceed 1.2 p.p. for women, and 3.9 p.p. for men.

Focus on employment by occupation and sector of activities

Most of skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers are self-employed

In the EU, self-employment is the professional status of almost two thirds of skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery male workers (65.7 %) but also female workers (61.7 %). The managers follow with more than one third (35.4 %) of male managers and almost one fourth (23.1 %) of female managers being self-employed. These two occupational categories included the highest shares of self-employed persons in Q3 2021 as shown in Figure 3. By contrast, some occupations showed a very low level of self-employed people. Self-employment accounted for 7 % or less among the total clerical support workers (2.1 % for men and 1.7 % for women), among people with elementary occupations (5.1 % for men and 2.1 % for women) and among plant and machine operators and assemblers (7.0 % for men and 2.6 % for women).

Another relevant finding is that differences between self-employed men and women can be more or less broad depending on the occupational category. Managers showed the largest difference between men and women with a difference of 12.3 p.p.; they were followed by the technicians and associate professionals among which 13.9 % of employed men were self-employed but only 7.0 % of employed women, showing a gender gap of 6.9 p.p. Craft and related trades workers also showed a relatively large gap of 6.6 p.p. between men and women (as 17.9 % of employed men were self-employed against 11.4 % of women).

Figure 3: Employed people by sex, professional status and occupational category, EU, Q3 2021
(in % of total employment, not seasonally adjusted data)
Source: Eurostat (lfsq_egais)

Figure 4 presents the share of self-employed skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers in the total employment as well as the share of managers by country. It is clearly visible that the weight of self-employment in the total employment varied significantly from a country to another in Q3 2021 for these two occupational categories. More than 70 % of the skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers were self-employed in Greece, Poland, Ireland and Romania while they accounted for less than 50 % in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Czechia, Bulgaria, Hungary and the Netherlands. Moreover, more than two thirds of the managers were self-employed in Italy and about 60 % in Greece and Croatia. In contrast, self-employed only accounted for less than 20 % of the managers in Cyprus, Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Czechia, Lithuania and Malta.

Figure 4: Self-employed skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers and managers by country, Q3 2021
(in % of total employment, 20-64, not seasonally adjusted data)
Source: Eurostat (lfsq_egais)

Largest differences between employees and self-employed in agriculture, forestry and fishing and in manufacturing

According to the most recent LFS data, more than half of the self-employed people in the EU (53.8 % exactly) are concentrated in four NACE sectors of activity as shown in Figure 5. The most popular sector among self-employed people is the sector of "wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles", accounting for 15.1 % of the total self-employed people. By comparison, 13.1 % of the employees work in this sector. Ranking second, the sector of "agriculture, forestry and fishing" encompassed 14.2 % of the self-employed aged 20-64 but only 1.6 % of the total employees. More than one in 10 self-employed people worked in the sector of "professional, scientific and technical activities" (12.7 %) while 4.6 % of the employees were employed in this sector. The sector of construction accounted for 11.8 % of the self-employed people but only for 5.8 % of the employees. In contrast, 17.8 % of the employees were employed in the manufacturing sector (the largest sector for employees) against only 7.1 % of self-employed people.

Figure 5: Self-employed people and employees by sector of activity (NACE 1d), EU, Q3 2021
(in % of total employees and self-employment, age 20-64, not seasonally adjusted data)
Source: Eurostat (ad-hoc special extraction)

Profile of employed people with a second job

To complement the analysis of employment by professional status, the characteristics of employed people combining two, three or even more jobs can be looked at. In the third quarter of 2021, in the EU, 3.3 % of employed people aged 20-64 had a second job, and 0.4 % had three jobs or more (see Figure 6). These percentages varied among countries: the Netherlands (9.3 %), Denmark (7.5 %), Finland (7.3 %), Estonia (6.1 %) and Austria (5.5 %) recorded the highest shares of people with at least two jobs (Figure 6). In contrast, countries with the lowest shares were Bulgaria (0.4 %), Romania and Sweden (both 0.7 %) and Slovakia (1.1 %). Lithuania was the country with the highest share of people having three jobs or more (2.5 %).

Figure 6: Share of employed people by number of jobs and country, Q3 2021
(% of employed, age 20-64, focus on interval 80-100%)
Source: Eurostat (ad-hoc special extraction)

At EU level, the number of employed persons with at least two jobs is shared almost equally between men and women (50.8 % men and 49.2 % women in Q3 2021). Nevertheless, the composition between men and women varies broadly among the different countries: from an extreme of 73.7 % of men (26.3 % of women) in Greece and 67.8 % of men (32.2 % of women) in Romania, to the opposite in Latvia with 32.8 % of men (67.2 % of women), France with 36.3 % of men (63.7 % of women), and Lithuania with 44.6 % of men (55.4 % of women).

Figure 7: Distribution of people with a second job (or more) by gender, educational attainment level and country, Q3 2021
(in % of people with a second job (or more))
Source: Eurostat (lfsq_e2ged)

The EU aggregate presents a slightly higher share of women with a high educational level among people with a second job (or more): 22.0 % against 21.2 % with a medium and 5.9 % with a low level. Regarding men, the greatest share is of men with a medium level of education (23.2 %), followed by men with a high (22.4 %) and low level of education (5.1 %).

In 15 EU countries, people with a high level of education represent the majority (more than 50 %) of people with a second job (or more), with shares ranging from 50.8 % in Malta to 73.7 % in Lithuania. In 6 other Member States, those with medium education were the majority, with shares ranging from 51.1 % in Hungary to 73.6 % in Romania. People with a low level of education were the least common group among those with at least a second job in all EU countries, with the slight exception of Spain (19.3 % with low versus 19.2 % with medium).

People working outside their country of residence

As more countries are joining the European Union, and participating in joint projects and goals, more people have started working across EU, finding jobs in countries different from their own.

In the third quarter of 2021, almost 2 million people have worked in another country outside their country of residence, accounting for 1.0 % of employed people aged 20 – 64 in the EU (see Map 1). Countries that have seen a major working mobility across the European Union were Estonia with 2.9 % of employed people working abroad, Luxembourg (2.8 %), Belgium (2.7 %), Latvia and Croatia (both 2.5 %) and Slovenia with 2.4 %. Instead, countries among the EU with minor mobility have been Greece with 0.1 %, Denmark (0.2 %) and Finland, with 0.3 % of employed people working in another EU country.

Map 1: People working outside their country of residence
(in % of employment age group 20-64)
Source: Eurostat (ad-hoc special extraction)

Top 12 occupations and economic activities

Across the EU, the ranking of the economic activities combined with occupations, has shown the most common groups of people who work outside their country of residence (see Figure 8). Among the top 12 categories, the most common is the craft and related trades workers in the construction sector with over 215000 workers. Following is the craft and related trades workers in the manufacturing sector with almost 140000 workers. Plant and machine operators and assemblers both in the manufacturing and in the transportation and storage sector rank in the third and fourth position, with about 76500 workers each. Technicians and associate professionals in the manufacturing and human health and social work activities sector follow in the fifth and sixth position of the ranking.

Professionals are also a very common group, among different sectors as professional scientific and technical activities, human health and social work activities, information and communication and manufacturing, with workers ranging respectively from around 56300 to 51850. At the end of the ranking, there are the elementary occupations of the agriculture, forestry and fishing section with about 42400 workers who work in another country than their country of residence.

Figure 8: Economic activities and occupations with the highest number of people working outside their country of residence, EU, Q3 2021
(thousands, age group 20 - 64)
Source: Eurostat (ad-hoc special extraction)

Men are more common in the first two categories craft and related trades workers in the manufacturing and construction sector. Instead, for women, the most common category is the technicians and associate professionals in the human health and social work activities sector.

Employment of the first and second generation of migrants by level of education and gender

Starting from the first quarter of 2021, the EU-LFS provides quarterly indicators on the employment of the second generation of migrants. The section "definition" below explains the concept of migration used in this section.

At EU level, the employment rate varied quite significantly according to the migration status (see Figure 9). Note that for the purpose of this analysis, Spain and Denmark were excluded from the calculation due to non-availability of data on native-born people. The highest employment rate was recorded for native-born people with foreign EU background (i.e. people born in the country of residence with the two parents born in another EU country, or with one parent from another EU country and the other parent from a non-EU country). Indeed, almost 80 % of this population were employed in Q3 2021 (79.3 %). They were closely followed by native-born people with mixed EU background, who recorded an employment rate of 77.1 %, and by people born in another EU country (77.0 %). Native-born people with native background had an employment rate of 75.7 % whereas 73.7 % of native-born people with a mixed non-EU background were employed. Finally, employed people accounted for 70.4 % among native-born people with a foreign non-EU background, and slightly less than two thirds of people born in a non-EU country were employed in Q3 2021 (65.2 %).

Regardless of the migration status, the share of employed men was always higher than the share of employed women but the difference varied. The widest gender gap was reported by people born in a non-EU country (20.5 p.p.) resulting from a male employment rate of 75.6 % versus a female employment rate of 55.1 %. Ranking second were people born in another EU country with a gap of 12.1 p.p. between men and women, closely followed by native-born people with native background who recorded a gender employment gap of 10.3 %. The second generation of migrants had the narrowest gender gaps: the native-born people with foreign non-EU background recorded a difference of 7.9 p.p. between the employment rate of men and women, the native-born people with mixed background showed a gender gap of 6.0 p.p. for those with a EU background and of 5.3 p.p. for those with a non-EU background. The category recording the narrowest gender gap is the native-born people with a foreign EU background (3.3 p.p.) (see Figure 9).

Figure 9: Employment rate by sex, educational attainment level and migration status, EU(¹), Q3 2021
(in % of the total population aged 20-64, not seasonally adjusted data)
Source: Eurostat (lfsq_erganedm)

Considering people with a low educational attainment level, people who were born in another EU country registered the highest employment rate (67.8 %) in Q3 2021, followed by native-born people with foreign EU background (62.8 %), native-born people with mixed EU background (56.7 %), native-born people with foreign non-EU background (55.4 %) and people born in a non-EU country (55.0 %). Native-born people with native background recorded an employment rate of 54.7 % and those with a mixed non-EU background of 53.8 %.

Among people with a medium or high educational attainment level, native-born people with foreign EU background had the highest employment rate (78.4 % for the medium and 87.7 % for the high level of education). With regard to the medium level of education, people born in another EU country ranked second with an employment rate of 76.3 %, and native people with native background ranked third with 75.1 %. Regarding the high level of education, native born people with native background ranked second with an employment rate of 87.3 % followed by those with a mixed EU background (86.8 %)(Figure 9).

In parallel, more than one third of people born in a non-EU country (37.6 %) had a low level of education, which is three times the share for native-born people with mixed EU background (11.1 %). This high share of people with a low level of education might impact on the employment rate of people born outside the EU. By contrast, more than one third of native-born people with mixed background (40.5 % for mixed non-EU background and 36.5 % for mixed EU background) had a high level of education. These shares are slightly higher than the categories of native born people with native background, with foreign EU background and people born in another EU country (all three between 31.3 % and 32.6 %). Lagging behind, only one in four native-born people with a foreign non-EU background and one in four people born in a non-EU country attained a high level of education (both with 27.9 %). Given that people with a high level of education are more likely to be employed, this may impact positively the total employment rate of this category (see Figure 9).

Crossing both factors sex and education level, the widest gender gaps were reported by people with a low level of education especially among people born in a non-EU country and native-born people with native background, both having differences in the employment rate of men and women of more than 20 p.p. (29.2 p.p. and 22.3 p.p. respectively).

Based on 21 EU Member States for which data on native-born people by background (without the EU/non-EU distinction) are available, only one third of countries follow the EU pattern with a higher employment rate for native born with native background, followed by those with a mixed background, by those with a foreign background, and finally by people born in another country (see Figure 10).

Figure 10: Employment rate by migration status and by country, Q3 2021
(in % of the total population aged 20-64, not seasonally adjusted data)
Source: Eurostat (lfsq_erganedm)

Source data for tables and graphs

Employment (in detail) Q3 2021: tables and figures

Data sources

All figures in this article are based on detailed quarterly survey results from the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS).

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 is based on the same target populations and uses the same definitions in all countries, which means that the results are comparable between countries.

European aggregates: EU refers to the sum of the 27 EU Member States.

Country notes: (1) Spain and France have assessed the attachment to the job and included in employment those who have an unknown duration of absence but expect to return to the same job once the COVID-19 measures in place are lifted. (2) In the Netherlands, the 2021 quarterly 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 Labour Force Survey follow the guidelines of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The low educational attainment level refers to the attainment of lower secondary education, at most. The medium educational attainment level corresponds to at most upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary education and the high level of educational attainment level to the attainment of tertiary education.

The migration status used in the current publication is defined as follows:

Figure annex: Population by migration status, EU(¹), Q3 2021
(in % of the total population aged 20-64)
Source: Eurostat (ad-hoc special extraction)

Main methodological changes introduced in 2021 by Regulation (EU) 2019/1700

persons on parental leave, and who are either receiving job-related income or benefits, or whose parental leave is expected to last 3 months or less, are counted as employed;
persons raising agricultural products for own-consumption are excluded from employment;
seasonal workers outside the season are classified as employed if they still regularly perform tasks and duties for the job or business during the off-season;
people with a job or business who were temporarily not at work during the reference week but with strong attachment to their job are still considered as employed. In the particular context of the COVID-19 crisis and the measures applied to combat it, national specificities exist in the assessment of the job attachment;
not employed people are considered searching for a job only if they use an active search method;
further harmonisation in the implementation of questions and modernisation of the survey at national level.

Eight different articles on detailed technical and methodological information are available from the overview page of the online publication EU Labour Force Survey. Detailed information on coding lists, explanatory notes and classifications used over time can be found under documentation.

Context

The COVID-19 pandemic hit Europe in January and February 2020, with the first cases confirmed in Spain, France and Italy. COVID-19 infections have been diagnosed since then in all European Union (EU) Member States. To fight the pandemic, EU Member States have taken a wide variety of measures. From the second week of March 2020, most countries closed retail shops, with the exception of supermarkets, pharmacies and banks. Bars, restaurants and hotels were also closed. In Italy and Spain, non-essential production was stopped and several countries imposed regional or even national lock-down measures which further stifled economic activities in many areas. In addition, schools were closed, public events were cancelled and private gatherings (with numbers of persons varying from 2 to over 50) banned in most EU Member States.

The majority of the preventive measures were initially introduced during mid-March 2020. Consequently, the first quarter of 2020 was the first quarter in which the labour market across the EU was affected by COVID-19 measures taken by Member States.

In the following quarters of 2020, as well as 2021, the preventive measures against the pandemic were continuously lightened and re-enforced in accordance with the number of new cases of the disease. New waves of the pandemic began to appear regularly (e.g. peaks in October-November 2020 and March-April 2021). Furthermore, new strains of the virus with increased transmissibility emerged in late 2020, which additionally alarmed the health authorities. Nonetheless, as massive vaccination campaigns started all around the world in 2021, people began to anticipate improvement of the situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

The quarterly data on employment allows to regularly report on the impact of the crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic on employment. This specific article depicts employment in general and specifically by gender, age and level of educational attainment. Another article focuses on the employed people and job starters by sector of economic activity and occupation.

Please note that in this exceptional context of the COVID-19 pandemic, employment and unemployment as defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) are not sufficient to describe the developments taking place in the labour market. In the first phase of the crisis, active measures to contain employment losses led to absences from work rather than dismissals, and individuals could not look for work or were not available due to the containment measures, thus not counting as unemployed. Only referring to unemployment might consequently underestimate the entire unmet demand for employment, also called the labour market slack, which is further analysed, with namely the evolution of the total volume of working hours, in the publication Labour market in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic.