Archive:Statistics on employment characteristics of households

Data extracted in May 2020.

Planned article update: June 2020.

Highlights

In 2019, at least one adult was working in 64.8 % of the households

In EU-27, one in five women aged 25-49 without children in her household is working part-time

Less than 6 % of men with the youngest child aged 5 years and less is working part-time

Private households by working status, 2019 (% of private household) - Source: Eurostat (lfst_hhnhwhtc)

This article gives insight into the labour market characteristics using household information. More statistics on this topic can be found in the Eurostat database under Employment and unemployment (Labour Force Survey). This article is also nicely complemented by some other articles based on the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS), namely the articles Employment Statistics, Part-time and temporary employment - statistics, Unemployment statistics and beyond and Household composition statistics.

Full article

In most households all adults are working

The most common household type in the EU-27 in 2019, seen from a labour market perspective, was the household where all adults were working (44.6 % of all private households) (Figure 1). This was followed by the household where none of the adults were working (35.2 %). In the remaining 20.2 % of the households, at least one adult was working and one adult not working.

Among the EU Member States, Sweden had in 2019 the highest percentage of households where all adults were working (63.9 %), Greece had the highest percentage of households where no adults were working (44.6 %) and Croatia had the highest percentage of households where at least one adult was working and one adult not working (34.5 %).

For further information about household composition, see the Statistics Explained article Household composition statistics .

Figure 1: Private households by working status, 2019 (% of private households) - Source: Eurostat (lfst_hhnhwhtc)

Having children affects the part-time employment rate

Whether or not a person has children presen in the household does affect the way he or she participates in the labour market. The number of children and the age of the youngest child influence furthermore the participation in the labour market. Figures 2 and 3 show these effects for both the male and female population. Note that all results are limited to persons aged 25-49 years, so that different national situations for being a pupil, student and/or retired person do not influence the results and do not compromise the comparability between countries.

In 2019, 1 in 3 women (aged 25-49 years) with children worked on a part-time basis in the EU-27 (33.1 %). Figure 2 shows that the share of part-timers differs greatly between men and women and that gender gap becomes even bigger when persons have children. In all countries, the proportion of women with one or more children that are employed on a part-time basis is higher compared to men. The gap between men and women with children for the part-time work rate was 28.1 percentage points (p.p.) in the EU-27 in 2019. Concerning men and women without children, the gap is smaller (10.5 p.p.).

In Romania and North Macedonia, differences between men and women and between people with and without children, are rather small. In these two countries, the proportion of part-time workers is relatively low. In Denmark, Finland, Greece, Slovenia, Latvia, Portugal, Lithuania and Croatia, there are almost no differences in the share of part-time work between women with or without children. However, the most common pattern is that having children does influence the part-time work rate among women. For example, in Germany 24.0 % of women without children worked part-time in 2019 against 65.4 % of women with children, in Austria these rates were 27.3 % against 67.2 % and in the Netherlands 50.4 % against 83.0.3 % . This suggests that women in these countries tend to shift to part-time work from the moment they have children.

Figure 2: Gender gap in part-time employment by existence of children in household, 2019 (% of employed aged 25-49 years)- Source: Eurostat (lfst_hhptechi)

Especially women with young children work part-time

The age of their youngest child further influences the proportion of women working part-time, as shown in Figure 3. In the EU-27, 36.5 % of women (aged 25-49 years) in employment and having one or more children, of which the youngest child is 5 years or younger, worked part-time in 2019. The corresponding figures for women where the youngest child is 6-11 years old and 12 years or older is 34.0 % and 27.4 % respectively. By contrast, the part-time work rate of men (aged 25-49 years) having children is, relatively seen, not affected by the age of the youngest child: it nearly always stays below 10 % in all Member States. The only exception is in the Netherlands, where 16.6 % of men with a youngest child of 5 years or younger, 14.9 % with a youngest child aged 6-11 years and 14.2 % with a youngest child aged 12 years or older, worked on a part-time basis.

Moreover, the higher the number of children in a household, the higher the part-time employment rate of both men and women, especially where the youngest child is aged 11 years or younger.

Figure 3: Part-time employment by sex and age of the youngest child, 2019 (% of employed aged 25-49 years) - Source: Eurostat (lfst_hhptechi)

Source data for tables and graphs

Data on Labour Market and Household Statistics

Data sources

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 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: The data for France cover the metropolitan territory (excluding overseas regions). Country codes: Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), Czechia (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), Montenegro (ME), North Macedonia (MK), Serbia (RS) and Turkey (TR).

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.

•Self-employed persons with employees are defined as persons who work in their own business, professional practice or farm for the purpose of earning a profit, and who employ at least one other person.

•Self-employed persons without employees are defined as persons who work in their own business, professional practice or farm for the purpose of earning a profit, and who do not employ any other person.

•Employees are defined as persons who work for a public or private employer and who receive compensation in the form of wages, salaries, fees, gratuities, payment by results or payment in kind; non-conscripted members of the armed forces are also included.

•The distinction between full-time and part-time work is generally based on a spontaneous response by the respondent. The main exceptions are the Netherlands and Iceland where a 35 hours threshold is applied, Sweden where a threshold is applied to the self-employed, and Norway where persons working between 32 and 36 hours are asked whether this is a full- or part-time position;

•Unemployment covers persons aged 15-74 (16-74 in Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Iceland) who were not employed 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 starting within the next three months.

•Reason for inactivity is the main reason why somebody is not seeking employment. The main reason may or may not be the only reason. Only the main one is retained for analysis in this article.

Definitions of indicators reported in this publication are available on the EU-LFS Statistics Explained website: EU Labour Force Survey (Statistics Explained)

Context

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.