Archive:Labour force survey overview 2012
Statistics in Focus ?/2013; Author: Martin Teichgräber
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This publication presents the main results of the EU Labour Force Survey for the year 2012.
Main findings
In 2012 the picture of the EU labour market was still being determined by the economic and financial crisis. Many key figures for the labour market still show a negative trend or maintained on the recent low levels. The EU employment rate1 for those persons of working age (15-64) was down slightly by 0.1 p.p. in 2012 to 64.2% (see figure 1). It fell to 69.8% (-0.3p.p.) for men and rose marginally to 58.6% (+0.1 p.p.) for women.
The employment rate for the population aged 15 -64 was higher than the EU average in eleven EU Member States. The highest rates were recorded by the Netherlands (75.1%), Sweden (73.8%), Germany (72.8%), Denmark (72.8%), and Austria (72.5%). However, there were ten Member States that did not reach 60%. The lowest employment rates were observed in Greece (51.3%), Spain (55.4%), Italy (56.8%) and Hungary (57.2%). The employment rates for the EFTA countries were above 75%, with Iceland and Switzerland recording 79.7% and 79.4% respectively in 2012. Compared with 2011, the employment rate increased only in two countries 2% or more Latvia (2.3p.p.) and Estonia (+2.0p.p.). On the other hand, the employment rate fell more than 2% in Spain (-2.3p.p.), Portugal (-2.4p.p.), Cyprus (-3.0p.p.) and Greece (-4.3p.p.).
The employment rate for the narrower age group of 20-64 year-olds is used as one of the headline indicators in the context of the Europe 2020 strategy2. The EU employment rate for persons in this age class fell also by 0.1p.p. in 2012 to 68.5%, and departing from the target rate of 75% by 2020. The EU employment rate for the 20-64 age group was 74.6% for men and 62.4% for women.
Figure 1: Employment rate of persons aged 15-64 years, 2012
Text with Footnote [1]
The labour force in the EU (i.e. the total of employed and unemployed persons) reached 241.1 million persons in 2012, which was an increase of 1.1 million, or 0.4% compared with 2011. The number of persons in employment fell by around 1.0 million, to 216.1 million persons in 2012; the decrease in the number of employed men (-0.8 million persons) was around four times bigger than for employed women (-0.2 million persons).
The employment rate of persons aged 55-64 rose in the EU to 48.9% (+1.5 p.p. compared with 2011). It increased to 41.8% for women (+1.6 p.p.) and to 56.4% for men (+1.2 p.p.). Sweden recorded a very high employment rate of 73.0% in this age group. The countries with the lowest employment rate for persons aged 55-64 were Slovenia (32.9%), Malta (33.6%), Greece (36.4%) and Hungary (36.9%). Part-time employment continued its upward trend in 2012. Its share of total employment reached 19.2% in the EU, up by 0.4 p.p. from 2011.
Among the EU countries part-time was highest in the Netherlands (49.2% of employed persons) and lowest in Bulgaria (2.2%) and Slovakia (4.0%). The share of women in part-time employment in the EU (32.1%) is about four times bigger than that for men (8.4%).
Structure of employment by economic activity of the main job
In 2012, 70.1% of employed persons in the EU worked in services. 39.6% produced market-oriented services such as trade, transportation, accommodation and food services, information and financial activities and real estate. 30.5% were employed in public administration, education, human health, arts, entertainment and recreation and other services. A further 24.9% of employed persons worked in industry and construction, while 5.0% worked in agriculture.
Differences still persist between the EU Member States. Agriculture1 continues to be a very significant source of employment in Romania (29.0% of the working population in 2012), whereas it accounts for only a very small share (below 2%) in Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg and Malta. The relevance of industry (manufacture and construction) was highest in the Czech Republic (38.1%) and Slovakia (37.5%), and lowest in Luxembourg (12.7%). The share of market services was highest in Cyprus (48.0%), and non-market services were most prominent in Luxembourg (42.6%). 44.6% of the women employed in the EU worked in non-market services and 12.5% in industry (including construction). For men, the picture is almost the opposite, as 35.2% worked in industry and 18.6% in non-market services. The percentage of women and men in market services was nearly the same (38.8% and 40.3% respectively).
Structure of employment by occupation in the main job
Skilled non-manual workers (i.e. legislators, senior officials, managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals) were the largest occupational group in the EU in 2012, accounting for 40.1% of all employed persons. Luxembourg had the highest share, at 57.8%. Low-skilled non-manual workers (e.g. clerks, service, shop and market sales workers) and skilled manual workers (e.g. plant and machine operators, craft workers) accounted for 27.1% and 23.7% respectively of EU total employment. In 2012, Spain recorded the highest value for the low-skilled non-manual occupational group, at 32.5%, and Romania for skilled manual workers (49.5%). Lastly, 9.1% of employed persons in the EU had an elementary occupation, with Cyprus accounting for the highest share (17.1%).
The percentage of men and women who worked as skilled non-manual workers was fairly similar (38.9% and 41.6% respectively). The groups of skilled manual and low-skilled non-manual workers recorded bigger differences, with 36.3% of men working as skilled manual workers and 17.3% as low-skilled non-manual workers. The figures were the reverse for women (8.7% skilled manual workers and 38.7% low-skilled non-manual workers).
Main characteristics of employees
Employees accounted for 83.3% of total EU employment in 2012. Their share exceeded 90% of all employed persons in Estonia (91.4%), Luxembourg (91.0%) and Denmark (90.9%), although it fell below 70% in both Greece (63.2%) and Romania (67.3%).
Employees on a full-time regime usually worked 40.4 hours per week in 2012. In the United Kingdom and Austria, full-time employees worked longer weekly hours, 42.3 and 41.8 respectively; whereas the usual weekly hours worked by full-time employees were below 39.0 in Denmark (37.6), Ireland (38.7) and Italy respectively.
The usual weekly hours worked by part-time employees amounted to 20.1 on average in the EU in 2012. They were highest in Romania (24.8), Sweden and Belgium (24.3) and lowest in Portugal (17.6), Germany (18.3), Denmark (18.5) and Spain (18.6). Employees with temporary work contracts accounted for 13.7% of all employees in the EU. The highest share was in Poland (26.9%) and Spain (23.6%), but it was below 5% in Romania (1.7%), Lithuania (2.6%), Estonia (3.7%), Bulgaria (4.5%) and Latvia (4.7%).
Main characteristics of self-employed persons
Self-employed persons accounted for 15.2% of total EU employment in 2012. The highest shares of self-employed persons were recorded in Greece (31.9%), Italy (23.4%), Portugal (21.1%) and Romania (20.1%). The lowest shares were registered in Estonia (8.3%), Luxembourg (8.4%), Denmark (8.9%) and Lithuania (9.7%). 28.3% of self-employed persons in the EU have employed staff. Among these, the shares were highest in Hungary (46.5%), Estonia (43.6%), Germany (42.9%) and Austria (41.7%).
Self-employed persons worked mainly in market services (46.1%) with the highest shares in Spain (57.6%), Italy (56.1%) and Malta (55.5%). In agriculture there are major discrepancies between countries. Agriculture was a relatively important economic activity for self-employed persons in Romania (71.9%), Poland (43.0%), Lithuania (41.4%) and Portugal (39.9%), whereas it accounted for less than a 5% share in Slovakia (3.5%), the Czech Republic (4.4%) and the United Kingdom (4.4%).
The highest share of self-employed persons in total employment is in the age group of 65 and above (49.0%). This is probably because self-employed persons keep their business longer and postpone retirement, as compared to employees in that age group, or remain involved in some agricultural activity for their personal consumption after retirement.
Unemployment
Unemployment1 rose in the EU by 2.0 million persons in 2012 to reach 25.1 million. The increase affected both women and men. For women, it rose by 0.9 million persons to 11.5 million, and for men by 1.1 million to 13.6 million. The EU unemployment rate in 2012 was 10.4%. The increase of 0.8 p.p. compared with 2011. In 2012, the rate ranged from 4.3% in Austria, 5.1% Luxembourg 5.1%, 5.3% in the Netherlands and 5.5% in Germany to 25.0% in Spain, followed by Greece (24.3%), and Portugal (15.9%).
44.4% of unemployed persons in the EU in 2012 had been without work for 12 months or longer. The long-term unemployed accounted for over half of total unemployment in Slovakia (67.3%), Ireland (61.7%), Bulgaria (55.2%), Estonia, (54.1%), Italy (53.0%) and Latvia (51.9%), while the share was below 25% in Sweden (18.9%), Finland (21.4%) and Austria (24.8%).
In 2012, 9.7% of the young population aged 15-24 in the EU was unemployed. This is the unemployment ratio. While the unemployment rate is defined as the share of unemployed in the labour force, the unemployment ratio relates the number of unemployed of a given age to the total population of that age. The highest youth unemployment ratio was recorded in Spain (20.6%), Greece (16.1%), and Portugal (14.3%). The lowest ratios (6% or lower) were recorded in Germany, Luxembourg, and Austria.
Recent migration of non-national employed persons
Among the employed migrants, around 1.0 million took their residence in an EU country within the last two years. Within this group 600 thousands persons were EU nationals from another Member State and 400 thousands were nationals from outside the EU. 38.1% of the recently migrated persons employed in the EU took residence in the United Kingdom, 21.7% in Germany, 7.1% in Belgium, 5% in Spain, 4.7% in France, 4.6% in Austria and 3.4% in Italy. Compared with 2010, the total number of recently migrated persons in the EU recorded an increase of 6.5%. However the trends were very different across Member States.
EU Member States with a comparatively low unemployment rate recorded an increase of recently employed migrants in their country and those with a comparatively high unemployment rate recorded a decrease of their numbers. In Austria (96.2%) and in Germany (89.2%) the inflow of recently migrated persons nearly doubled. Instead it declined in Spain (-54.0%) and Italy (-14.9%) compared with 2010.
Employment and unemployment situation of migrants
In 2012, 15.2 million migrants worked in the EU, accounting for 7.0% of the total EU total employment. Among the employed migrants 6.5 million were nationals from another EU Member State and 8.6 million were nationals from outside the EU. The highest share of migrants among all the employed persons in the EU was recorded in Luxembourg (49.9%), Cyprus (22.7%) and Ireland (14.6%). With 23.7% Switzerland had also a relative high share of employed migrants.
The employment rate of migrants coming from within the EU is significantly higher (67.7%) than from those outside the EU (53.7%). In16 Member States the employment rate of migrants from within the EU is even higher than their rate of nationals. The highest rates showed Slovenia (80.2%), Latvia (76.6%), the Netherlands (76.1%), United Kingdom (75.9%) and Poland (75.8%). Among foreigners coming from a non EU country only the Czech Republic (73.0%) and Cyprus (73.4%) recorded an employment rate higher than 70%.
In the EU the unemployment rate for migrants is generally higher than for nationals. In 2012, the unemployment rate for migrants from another EU country was 12.5% on average in the EU and for foreigners coming from outside the EU the rate was more than two times higher (21.3%) than for nationals (9.8%). The highest unemployment rate for foreigners coming from outside the EU was observed in Spain (38.6%), in Greece (35.2%) and Sweden (30.5%). Rates of around 10% or lower were recorded in the Czech Republic, in Cyprus, and in Austria.
Synoptic overview of different categories in the labour market
Figure 3: Labour status of persons aged 15 years and older, EU-27, 2012
Further Eurostat information
Database
Dedicated section
Methodology / Metadata
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 annual averages of quarterly results.
Coverage: The data for France cover the metropolitan territory (excluding overseas regions)
Country codes: Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), the Czech Republic (CZ), Denmark (DK), Germany (DE), Estonia (EE), Ireland (IE), Greece (EL), Spain (ES), France (FR), 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), Croatia (HR), 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-27 Member States. When 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.
Definitions: The concepts and definitions used in the survey follow the guidelines of the International Labour Organisation.
Employment (LFS concept) 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, 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. Employment rates are calculated for different age groups as a percentage of the population in the same age group.
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.
Unemployment covers persons aged 15-74 (16-74 in Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Iceland) who were without work during the reference week, were currently available for work and had either been actively seeking work in the past four weeks or had already found a job to start within the next three months.
Long-term unemployment covers persons unemployed for one year or more. Youth unemployment is the unemployment among persons aged 15 to 24.
Definitions of indicators reported in this publication are available on the EU-LFS Statistics Explained website:
Classifications: Economic activity: the breakdown by economic activity is based on the classification NACE Rev 2 with the following correspondence: NACE section A - agriculture, sections B to F – industry (including construction), sections G to N - market services, and sections O to U - non-market services.
Occupation: The International Labour Organisation has revised the International Standard Classification of Occupations. The LFS uses the revised classification (ISCO 08) from 2011 onwards. The breakdown of employed persons by occupation is based on the classification ISCO 08 (groups 1 to 3 for 'skilled non manual', 4 to 5 for 'low skilled non manual', 6 to 8 for 'skilled manual' and 9 for 'elementary occupations'; armed forces are excluded from the calculations). Due to this revision, the 2011 results are not comparable with former years.
Source data for tables, figures and maps (MS Excel)
See also
Notes
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