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Archive:European Neighbourhood Policy - East - labour market statistics

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Data extracted in September 2015. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database. Planned article update: October 2016.

This article is part of an online publication; it presents information on a range of labour force statistics for the European Union (EU) and in the six countries that together form the European Neighbourhood Policy-East (ENP-East) region, namely, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia (excluding the regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia over which the Government of Georgia does not exercise effective control), Moldova (excluding those areas over which the Government of the Republic of Moldova does not exercise effective control) and Ukraine (it should be noted that the geographical coverage of the latest data for Ukraine is often limited to the territories that are under the effective control of the Ukrainian government and this impacts on the comparability of the time series).

The article presents a range of labour market indicators such as activity rates, employment rates, an analysis of employment by economic activity and professional status, and statistics on unemployment.

Figure 1: Activity rates (persons aged 15–64) by sex, 2014 (1)
(% of total population)
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_act_a) and (enpr_pslm)
Figure 2: Gender gap for employment rates (persons aged 20–64), 2004 and 2014
(percentage points difference, male employment rate - female employment rate)
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_emp_a), (enpr_pslm) and (enpr_siemp)
Table 1: Analysis of employment (persons aged 15 or more) by economic activity (NACE Rev. 2), 2004 and 2014
(% of total employment)
Source: Eurostat (lfsa_egana), (lfsa_egan2) and (enpr_pslm)
Table 2: Analysis of employment (persons aged 15–64) by working status, 2004–14
(% of total employment)
Source: Eurostat (lfsa_egaps) and (enpr_pslm)
Table 3: Unemployment rates (persons aged 15–74), 2004–14
(% of labour force)
Source: Eurostat (lfsa_urgan) and (enpr_pslm)
Table 4: Long-term unemployment rates (persons aged 15–74), 2004–14
(% of labour force)
Source: Eurostat (une_ltu_a) and (enpr_sisoc)
Table 5: Employment and unemployment rates, 2004, 2009 and 2014
(%)
Source: Eurostat (lfsa_ergan), (une_rt_a), (enpr_pslm) and (enpr_siemp)

Main statistical findings

Activity rates

Moldova stood out from the other ENP-East countries due to its relatively low activity rates

The proportion of the male population aged 15–64 across the EU-28 that was economically active (in other words, in work or actively seeking work and available to start work) stood at 78.1 % in 2014, while the corresponding rate for women was 66.5 %.

With the exception of Moldova (47.4 %), more than 70 % of the male population in each of the ENP-East countries was economically active in 2014. Georgia (82.6 %) and Belarus (78.9 %) recorded activity rates for men that were above the EU-28 average (see Figure 1).

Male activity rates were systematically higher than those recorded for women, both for the EU-28 and across the ENP-East countries, other than in Belarus (note that the data for Belarus relates to men aged 16–59, while that for women is for a smaller and more youthful subsection of the population, namely, those aged 16–54). Otherwise, the gender gap in activity rates ranged from 3.5 percentage points in Moldova to 19.6 percentage points in Georgia; the corresponding gap was 11.6 percentage points in the EU-28.

Female activity rates for four of the six ENP-East countries were lower than the EU-28 average (66.5 %); with two exceptions, Belarus (84.9 %, see methodological note above) and Azerbaijan (67.6 %). Moldova recorded the lowest female activity rate among the ENP-East countries (43.9 %) — repeating the pattern observed for men.

Employment rates

The gender gap for employment rates in the ENP-East countries was much higher in Armenia and Georgia than across the EU

The gender gap for EU-28 employment rates — among those aged 20–64 — decreased during the period 2004–14. However, the EU-28 male employment rate (75.0 %) remained considerably higher than the corresponding rate for women (63.4 %) in 2014, despite the gap having fallen from 16.1 percentage points in 2004 to 11.5 points by 2014 (see Figure 2).

Among the ENP-East countries in 2014, the gender gap (between male and female employment rates) was lowest in Moldova (2.9 percentage points), while Azerbaijan and Ukraine also recorded gaps that were smaller than the EU-28 average. By 2014, the gender gap had risen to 16.0 percentage points in Georgia and fallen to 19.3 percentage points in Armenia, as both of these ENP-East countries recorded gender gaps that were above the EU-28 average. Belarus was the only ENP-East country where the employment rate for women (84.6 %) was higher than that for men (78.4 %) in 2014; note that these employment rates also relate to men aged 16–59 and to a smaller and more youthful subsection of the female population aged 16–54.

The gender gap narrowed considerably in Armenia, as a result of a rapidly increasing female employment rate that rose from 37.5 % in 2004 to more than half (50.3 %) of the female working-age population in 2014. The gender gap also narrowed in Belarus, where the male employment rate increased at a more rapid pace than the female rate. By contrast, the gender gap for employment rates widened during the 10-year period under consideration in the remaining four ENP-East countries, most notably in Moldova.

Analysis of employment by economic activity

Agriculture, forestry and fishing accounted for a relatively high — but falling — share of total employment in many of the ENP-East countries

Table 1 shows an analysis of the structure of employment for 2004 and 2014. Within the EU-28, services accounted for 70.6 % of those employed (aged 15 or more) in 2014. The share of services within total employment rose over the most recent 10-year period for which data are available, gaining 5.2 percentage points.

In most of the ENP-East countries services also accounted for the largest proportion of the workforce, albeit with considerably lower shares than in the EU-28, and for an increasing share of the workforce (other than in Azerbaijan where its share was stable). Indeed, services employed the highest number of persons in five out of the six ENP-East countries in 2014 and accounted for more than half of those employed in the economies of Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova.

By contrast, more than half (50.9 %) of the workforce in Georgia in 2014 was active within agriculture, forestry and fishing, while high shares were also recorded in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Moldova; agriculture, forestry and fishing was the second largest employer in each of these countries. As such, Belarus and Ukraine were the only ENP-East countries to record a distribution of employment across economic activities that broadly resembled the structure of the workforce in the EU-28 in so far as the largest shares of the workforce were in services and industry. However, in these two countries the share of the workforce in construction was smaller than that in agriculture, forestry and fishing, whereas the reverse situation was observed for the EU-28.

There was a rapid restructuring of the labour markets in Moldova and Ukraine between 2004 and 2014. The proportion of those working in agriculture, forestry and fishing activities fell strongly, while the share of the workforce employed in services rose greatly as did the share in construction in relative terms; in Ukraine there was also a fall in the share of those working in industry. The shift in the structure of employment towards services in Moldova and Ukraine was stronger than that observed for the EU-28. Belarus reported a similar change in structure as that seen in Ukraine, although the magnitude of the movements was smaller.

Analysis of employment by professional status

Self-employed and family workers occupied close to one out of every six jobs in the EU-28 in 2014; employees accounted for the remainder of the workforce (see Table 2). The relative share of the self-employed and family workers in total employment in the EU-28 fell between 2004 and 2009 and was then relatively stable during the period 2009–14, tending to fall gradually during periods of economic growth or stability and rise marginally during periods of more testing economic conditions (for example, at the height of the global financial and economic crisis in 2009 and 2010).

The structure of employment by working status was quite different in most of the ENP-East countries. The relative importance of self-employed and family workers rose to a high of 67.2 % of the total workforce in Azerbaijan and was 56.1 % in Georgia. These high figures reflect, to some degree, the relative weight of agricultural activities in these countries, with work spread across numerous small-scale, family-run farms and cooperatives. By contrast, the structure of employment in Ukraine (the largest of the ENP-East countries) closely resembled that observed in the EU-28. In Belarus (note that the latest data available refer to 2009) a high proportion of the workforce was employed by the state and this may, at least in part, explain the very high share (96.8 %) of employees.

Unemployment rates

Male, youth and long-term unemployment appear to be more susceptible to cyclical economic changes than overall unemployment. Indeed, social policymakers often face the challenge of remedying these situations by designing ways to increase employment opportunities for various groups of society, those working in particular economic activities, or those living in specific regions.

Contrary to developments in the EU, unemployment rates declined in most of the ENP-East countries from 2010–14

When there is an economic downturn, it usually takes several months before the unemployment rate begins to rise. Once the economy starts to pick up again, employers usually remain cautious about hiring new workers and there may again be a lag of several months before unemployment rates start to fall. While the largest contractions in economic activity were recorded in 2009 (as a result of the financial and economic crisis), it was not uncommon for unemployment rates to increase not just in 2009 but also in 2010. In fact, the EU-28’s unemployment rate rose from a low of 7.0 % in 2008 to peak at 10.8 % in 2013, before dropping back to 10.2 % in 2014 (see Table 3).

Azerbaijan recorded a relatively low unemployment rate and an uninterrupted decline in its unemployment rate over the period 2004–14, despite the global financial and economic crisis. The labour markets of the four remaining ENP-East countries for which data are available (data for Belarus are not considered comparable as they are based upon registered unemployment) were more affected by the global economic and financial crisis as their unemployment rates peaked in 2009 or 2010, after which there were signs that the labour market was moving to a more balanced position. In Ukraine, this situation reversed in 2014 when the unemployment rate rose by 2.1 percentage points to move above its peak (2009) during the crisis, to reach 9.3 %.

The data available for 2014 show there were considerable differences in the latest annual unemployment rates of the ENP-East countries: rates in Armenia and Georgia were at a higher level than in the EU-28; the rate in Ukraine was just 0.9 percentage points below the EU-28 level; rates in Azerbaijan and Moldova were less than half the rate in the EU-28; the rate of registered unemployment in Belarus was just 0.5 %.

More than one in eight economically active women in Armenia had been unemployed for more than a year

Long-term unemployment is often viewed as a key indicator by policymakers, because it provides information in relation to structural weaknesses that may affect social cohesion and, ultimately, economic growth. The long-term unemployment rate in the EU-28 was 5.1 % of the labour force in 2014; with identical rates recorded for men and women — see Table 4.

The long-term unemployment rate was lower than the EU-28 average in three of the ENP-East countries (note again that the data presented for Belarus are not considered as comparable as they are based upon registered unemployment). Particularly low rates were recorded in Moldova and Ukraine (less than 2.0 % for both men and women), while the level of long-term unemployment was also below the EU-28 average in Azerbaijan. By contrast, long-term unemployment rates in Georgia (for men) and Armenia (for men and women) were above the EU-28 average; the share of the female labour force that had been unemployed for more than 12 months was particularly high in Armenia (13.0 % in 2014).

Youth unemployment rates were between two and three times as high as the unemployment rate for the whole population in the ENP-East countries

Table 5 provides a summary of developments in labour markets with data for 2004, 2009 and 2014. Aside from long-term unemployment rates, another indicator that has received a great deal of attention in recent years is the youth unemployment rate (for those aged less than 25). Between 2009 and 2014 the youth unemployment rate increased in the EU-28 at a somewhat faster pace than the overall unemployment rate (for those aged 15–74). More than one fifth (22.2 %) of the EU-28’s labour force aged 15–24 was without work in 2014, compared with one tenth (10.2 %) for the whole labour force.

Across the ENP-East countries, youth unemployment rates were also consistently higher than overall unemployment rates (no data available for Belarus). The difference was particularly marked in Armenia and Georgia, where youth unemployment rates were 18.0–20.0 percentage points higher than the average for the whole labour force, while in Ukraine the difference was 13.8 percentage points. These three ENP-East countries recorded youth unemployment rates that were higher than the EU-28 average in 2014, while lower youth unemployment rates were recorded in Azerbaijan and Moldova.

Data sources and availability

The data for ENP-East countries are supplied by and under the responsibility of the national statistical authorities of each country on a voluntary basis. The data that are presented in this article result from an annual data collection cycle that has been established by Eurostat. These statistics are available free-of-charge on Eurostat’s website, together with a range of different indicators covering most socio-economic areas.

The main source for European labour force statistics is the European Union labour force survey (EU LFS). This household survey is carried out in all EU Member States in accordance with European legislation; it provides figures at least each quarter.

The economically active population (labour force) comprises employed and unemployed persons. The EU LFS defines persons in employment as those aged 15 and over, who, during the reference week, performed some work, even for just one hour per week, for pay, profit or family gain. The labour force also includes people who were not at work but had a job or business from which they were temporarily absent, for example, because of illness, holidays, industrial disputes, education or training.

Employment statistics are frequently reported as employment rates to discount the changing size of countries’ populations over time and to facilitate comparisons between countries of different sizes. These rates are typically published for the working age population, which is generally considered to be those aged between 15 and 64 years, as well as for those aged 20–64 (to take account of the increasing proportion of young people who remain in education).

Eurostat publishes unemployment statistics based on a definition of unemployment provided by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) for which there are three criteria, namely: being without work, actively seeking work, and being available for work.

Tables in this article use the following notation:

Value in italics     data value is forecasted, provisional or estimated and is therefore likely to change;
: not available, confidential or unreliable value.
– not applicable.

Context

Labour market statistics are increasingly used to support policymaking and to provide an opportunity to monitor participation in the labour market. In the aftermath of the global financial and economic crisis, these statistics have been used to monitor the knock-on effects of the crisis on labour markets (which notoriously lag behind fluctuations in economic activity).

In March 2010, the European Commission launched the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. One of the headline targets for the strategy is to raise the employment rate for women and men aged 20–64 years old to 75 % by 2020. EU Member States may set their own national targets in the light of these headline targets and draw up national reform programmes that include the actions they aim to undertake in order to implement the strategy.

The slow pace of recovery from the financial and economic crisis in the EU and mounting evidence of rising unemployment led the European Commission to make a set of proposals on 18 April 2012 for measures to boost jobs through a dedicated employment package. In December 2012, in the face of high and still rising youth unemployment in several EU Member States, the European Commission proposed a Youth employment package (COM(2012) 727 final). Efforts to reduce youth unemployment continued in 2013 as the European Commission presented a Youth employment initiative (COM(2013) 144 final) designed to reinforce and accelerate measures outlined in the Youth employment package. It aimed to support, in particular, young people not in education, employment or training in regions with a youth unemployment rate above 25 %. There followed another Communication titled ‘Working together for Europe's young people – A call to action on youth unemployment’ (COM(2013) 447 final) which is designed to accelerate the implementation of the youth guarantee and provide help to EU Member States and businesses so they may recruit more young people. One of the main priorities of the College of Commissioners that entered into office in 2014 is to focus on boosting jobs, growth and investment.

In cooperation with its ENP partners, Eurostat has the responsibility ‘to promote and implement the use of European and internationally recognised standards and methodology for the production of statistics, necessary for developing and monitoring policy achievements in all policy areas’. Eurostat undertakes the task of coordinating EU efforts to increase the statistical capacity of the ENP countries. Additional information on the policy context of the ENP is provided here.

See also

Further Eurostat information

Publications

Database

Population and social conditions (enpr_ps)
ENP countries: labour market (enpr_pslm)
LFS main indicators (lfsi)
Population, activity and inactivity - LFS adjusted series (lfsi_act)
Employment - LFS adjusted series (lfsi_emp)
Unemployment - LFS adjusted series (une)

Dedicated section

Methodology / Metadata

Source data for tables and figures (MS Excel)

External links


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