Archive:Employment in detail - quarterly statistics

Data extracted in November 2021

Planned article update: February 2022

Highlights

At EU level, 13 % of employed people aged 20-64 were self-employed during the second quarter of 2021. This share was 17 % among people aged 55-64.

The number of self-employed people increased by 28 % from the first to the second quarter of 2021 in the travel agency, tour operator reservation service and related activities sector, as well as in the sector of accommodation.

In the second quarter of 2021, in the EU, more than two thirds of self-employed people were own-account workers (69%); the remaining third was employers (31 %).

Less than 1 in 10 employed people in Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Luxembourg was self-employed in the second quarter of 2021

In the first two quarters of 2021, the health measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic were progressively lifted and the economy started its recovery phase. At the same period, many EU governments also announced the upcoming partial or complete cancellation of the short time working arrangements or other financial support aiming to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on employment.

In light of this situation, this article looks at the recent development of the number of employed people, with a distinction between employees and self-employed people, to reflect on both the consequences on employment of the crisis and of the halt in the financial support provided to the enterprises. It also provides an overview of the employed people by professional status across the EU Member States. Furthermore, this article explores the sectors of economic activity and groups of occupations with the largest presence of self-employed people and those registering the highest quarter-on-quarter growths.

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. Please take note that figures presented in this article may differ in some cases from the source data, due to continuous revision of the Eurostat database (Employment and unemployment (Labour Force Survey)).

Full article

Employees and self-employed people: country profiles

The vast majority of people in employment in the EU aged 20-64 were employees in the second quarter of 2021, accounting for 86.2 % (see Figure 1). The highest share of employees among the total number of employed people can be found in Germany with 92.4 %, followed by Denmark (91.8 %), Sweden (91.4 %) and Luxembourg (91.2 %). The lowest shares of employees were reported in Greece (68.9 %) and Italy (79.3 %), where less than eight out of ten employed people were employees.

The remaining employed people are mainly self-employed persons. At EU level, 13.2 % of employed people were self-employed persons. Greece (28.2 % of self-employed in total employment), Italy (19.8 %), Poland (17.9 %) and the Netherlands (15.3 %) recorded the highest shares of self-employement in the second quarter of 2021. By contrast, less than 1 in 10 employed persons was self-employed persons in Germany (7.4 %), Luxembourg (7.6 %), Denmark (8.0 %), Sweden (8.5 %) and Bulgaria (9.9 %). 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). In the EU, more than two thirds of self-employed persons (68.9 %) were own-account workers while 31.1 % were employers. In Croatia, Germany, Luxembourg, Estonia, Denmark, Latvia, Austria and France, more than 4 in 10 self-employed persons had employees while this was the case for less than 2 in 10 self-employed persons in Romania, Lithuania, Cyprus, Czechia and Slovakia.

The last category of employed people consists of contributing family workers. This professional status is relatively marginal at EU level (0.6 %) and in the overwhelming majority of EU Member States. However, in two EU countries, contributing family workers accounted for more than 2 % of total employment in the second quarter of 2021, namely Greece (2.9 %) and Romania (2.8 %).

Figure 1: Share of employed people by professional status and by country, Q2 2021
(in % of total employed people aged 20-64, non seasonally adjusted data)
Source: Eurostat (lfsq_egaps)

Figure 2: Development in the number of employees and self-employed by country, Q2 2021 compared to Q1 2021 (in %, people aged 20-64, non seasonally adjusted data)
Source: Eurostat (lfsq_egaps)

Looking at the evolution between the first and the second quarter of 2021, the growth rate of employees fluctuated between a decrease of 2.1 % in Estonia and an increase of 9.2 % in Greece. Substantial increases in the number of employees were also recorded in Ireland (+4.1 %) and Slovenia (+4.0 %), as shown in Figure 2.

Self-employed people, on the other hand, appeared to have relatively high volatility over the same period. The number of self-employed persons changed by more than 4 % in eleven countries. The sharpest decreases in the number of people with this professional status were observed in Luxembourg (-10.9 %) and in Malta (-4.9 %). In contrast, the number of self-employed people was much larger in the second quarter of 2021 than in the first quarter of 2021 in Romania (+17.2 %), Croatia (+11.7 %), Slovenia (+9.8 %) and Ireland (+8.1 %). Please note that the high volatility in the number of self-employed can be explained by a low number of people in this category in some countries, particularly in small countries, which might emphasize the changes. No specific differences based on the type of self-employment could be highlighted across the EU as regards the development between the first and the second quarter, as there was a higher increase or a lower decrease for self-employed people without employees than for self-employed with employees in 14 out of 27 EU Member States.

Figure 3 shows that, in the EU during the second quarter of 2021, employed men were more likely to be a self-employed person than employed women: 16.5 % of employed men were self-employed people against 9.3 % for women. The same pattern but to a different extent is observed among all Member States. The largest differences among the shares of self-employed men and women were found in Greece (12.4 percentage points (p.p.)), Slovakia (11.8 p.p.), Malta (11.4 p.p.) and Poland (10.3 p.p.). Considering the subcategories of self employment, i.e. those with employees (employers) and those without employees (own-account workers), 74.4 % of self-employed women were own-account workers against 66.3 % of self-employed men. Reciprocally, one third of self-employed men and one fourth of self-employed women were employers. In all EU Member States, the share of employers among self-employed men was higher than the share of employers among self-employed women, except in Romania where self-employed women were more likely to be a employer than self-employed men.

Figure 3: Share of self-employed people with and without employees by sex and country, Q2 2021
(in % of total employed people aged 20-64, non seasonally adjusted data)
Source: Eurostat (lfsq_egaps)

Snapshot on self-employment

More than 1 in 5 employed men aged 55-64 is a self-employed person

As already stated in the previous section of this article, self-employment is clearly more common among employed men than among employed women. This can be observed for every age group and educational attainment level (see Figure 4). Furthermore, there are more self-employed people among employed people aged 55 to 64 compared to the other age groups (15-24 and 25-54). To illustrate this with the most noticeable finding, at EU level, 22.5 % of employed men aged 55-64 are self-employed against 15.9 % among employed men aged 25-54 and 5.0 % among employed men aged 15-24. Among employed women aged 55-64, 11.0 % were self-employed against 9.4 % among women aged 25-54 and 2.9 % among employed women aged 15-24. This pattern was observed for the total employment but also for each specific category of educational attainment level.

Differences in the professional status of employed people between the three levels of education i.e. low, medium and high are not so large as the ones observed for the age or gender groups. Nonetheless, self-employment appears to be faintly more frequent among employed people with a low educational attainment level (15.8 % against 12.4 % for employed people with a medium level and 13.1 % for employed people with a high level), see the figure on the top of the article. Overall considering the people of the same age and sex, the gaps between the shares of self-employed people in different educational attainment level are always lower than 4 p.p. The only exception is for employed men aged 55-64, who had a larger gap between the representatives with a medium level of education and the representatives with a high or low level of education which showed significantly higher share of self-employment.

Nevertheless, it also appears that the prevalence of being employers or own-account workers differs significantly from a category of education to another: 43.2 % of self-employed men aged 55-64 with a high level of education were employers against 35.9 % for self-employed men with a medium level of education and 30.2 % for self-employed men with a low level of education. The same finding was also found for self-employed women aged 55-64 and men aged 25-54: the higher the educational attainment level, the higher the share of employers among self-employed people. However, women aged 25-54 do not follow this pattern as more self-employed women are employers among women with a low level of education (26.3 %) than among women with a medium level (25.4 %) or with a high level of education (24.6 %).

Moreover, the share of women with a low level of education and being contributing family workers is higher than for men with a low level of education but also in comparison with women and men with a medium or a high level of education.

Figure 4: Employed people by sex, level of education, age and professional status, EU, Q2 2021
(in % of employed people, non seasonally adjusted data)
Source: Eurostat special extraction

Sectors of activities and occupations: focus on self-employment and growths

More than 15 % increase for accommodation and activities related to travel agency or tour operator, both for employees and self-employed

According to the most recent LFS data released, more than half of employed people in the EU were self-employed in the NACE sector of "other professional, scientific and technical activities" including e.g. specialised design, photographic and translation and interpretation activities (57.1 %) as well as in the sector of crop and animal production, hunting and related service activities (54.3 %) as shown in Figure 4. The sectors of creative, arts and entertainment activities, other personal service activities and repair of computers and personal and household goods follow with more than 4 in 10 employed people being self-employed. Note that NACE categories not fulfilling the data reliability and confidentiality criteria are excluded from this analysis.

Figure 5: Sectors of activity (NACE 2d) for which more than 25 % of employed people are self-employed, EU, Q2 2021
(in % of total employed people, non seasonally adjusted data)
Source: Eurostat special extraction

The largest developments between the first and the second quarter of 2021 i.e. growth rates of more than 4 %, are displayed in Figure 5 for both employees and self-employed. With respect to employees, the highest quarter-on-quarter growth rates in the second quarter of 2021 were registered by the sector of accommodation (+ 19.6 %), gambling and betting activities (+18.1 %) and travel agency, tour operator and other reservation service and related activities (+17.8 %). As for self-employed, increases by more than 15 % were found in the following sectors: travel agency, tour operator and other reservation service and related activities (+28.2 %), accommodation (+27.8 %), manufacture of machinery and equipment n.e.c. (+26.7 %), rental and leasing activities (+20.2 %), sports activities and amusement and recreation activities (+19.4 %), creative, arts and entertainment activities (+19.0 %), publishing activities (+18.8 %) and food and beverage service activities (+15.9 %).

Figure 6: Largest developments in the number of employees and self-employed persons by sector of activity (NACE 2d), Q2 2021 compared to Q1 2021
(in %, people 20-64, non seasonally adjusted data)
Source: Eurostat special extraction

Quarter-on-quarter increase of 11 % for employees as food preparation assistants

In the EU, self-employment is the professional status of more than half of street and related sales and service workers (68.1 %), skilled agricultural workers (65.6 %) and hospitality, retail and other services managers e.g. hotel and restaurant managers and retail and wholesale trade managers (59.4 %). These occupational categories included the highest shares of self-employed persons in the second quarter of 2021 as shown in Figure 7. Skilled forestry, fishery and hunting workers, and chief executives, senior officials and legislators stood also out with a relatively high share of self-employed in the EU of around one third (EU level). Differences are also noticeable in the type of self-employment for this groups of occupations: it can clearly be seen that most chief executives, senior officials and legislators (82.2 %), production and specialised services managers (76.4 %) and hospitality, retail and other services managers (72.3 %) were employers while this was the case of less than one fifth of the skilled agricultural workers and the legal, social and cultural professionals (i.e. legal, social and religious associate professionals; sports and fitness workers; and, artistic, cultural and culinary associate professionals).

Figure 7: Occupational categories (ISCO 2d) for which more than 25 % of employed people are self-employed, EU, Q2 2021
(in % of total employed people)
Source: Eurostat special extraction

Among employees, the largest increases from the first to the second quarter of 2021 were registered by the food preparation assistants (+10.7 %); the craft and related trades workers (+8.3 %); the skilled forestry, fishery and hunting workers (+7.7 %); the skilled agricultural workers and the personal service workers (+7.6 %) and the personal service workers (+7.2 %), all these categories exceeding a 7 % increase (see Figure 8). As for self-employed, such increases (higher than 7 %) have been recorded for the general and keyboard clerks (+21.8 %); the customer services clerks (+15.3 %); the legal, social, cultural and related associate professionals (14.0 %); the information and communication technicians (+12.0 %); the skilled forestry, fishery and hunting workers (+9.6 %); the personal service workers (+8.7 %), the cleaners and helpers (+7.9 %) and the electrical and electronic trades workers (+7.2 %).

Figure 8: Largest developments in the number of employees and self-employed persons by occupational category (ISCO 2d), Q2 2021 compared to Q1 2021
(in %, people 20-64, non seasonally adjusted data)
Source: Eurostat special extraction

Second job as self-employed or employees

Across the EU, slightly less than 4 % of employed people (3.8 %) had a second job in the second quarter of 2021. While this share is higher than 7 % in the Netherlands (9.6 %), Finland and Denmark (both with 7.3 %), 0.5 % or less of employed people had a second job in Bulgaria (0.4 %), Romania and Sweden (both 0.5 %). At EU level, the majority of people having a second job (57.2 %) do their second job as employee and almost 40 % as self-employed (39.2 %). Based on countries for which data is available, the prevalence of one or another status to exercise their second job differs across EU Member States as shown in Figure 9. In Denmark, France, Germany, Spain and Estonia, more than two thirds of those having a second job were employees in their second job while this share accounted for less than one third in Latvia, Luxembourg and Poland. In Slovenia, Latvia, Belgium, Hungary, Poland, Italy and Greece, more than half of those having a second job were self-employed in their second job.

Figure 9: Occupational categories (ISCO 2d) for which more than 25 % of employed people are self-employed, EU, Q2 2021
(in % of total employed people)
Source: Eurostat special extraction

People being professionals in their first job were those with the highest share of employed people having a second job (5.1 %) during the second quarter of 2021. This category encompasses people working as professionals in various domains: science and engineering, health, teaching, business and administration, information and communications technology and finally, in legal, social and cultural fields, and generally with a high skill level (for further information see the ISCO-08 structure). Slightly more than half of employed professionals having a second job were employees in their second job (2.7 % of total employed professionals), the remaining part exercised their second job mainly as self-employed (2.3 %). Note that the sum differs from 0.1 p.p. due to rounding. It is also worth noting that 4.7 % of people with elementary occupations had also a second job, making the second occupational category with the highest frequency of people having a second job. Elementary occupations involve the performance of simple and routine tasks which may require the use of hand-held tools and considerable physical effort. Workers in elementary occupations include people employed as cleaners and helpers; agricultural, forestry and fishery workers; those employed in mining, construction, manufacturing and transport; food preparation assistants; street and related sales and services workers or refuse workers. More than 8 in 10 employed people with elementary occupations having a second job were employees in their second job (81.7 %) while 15.7 % were self-employed (see Figure 10).

Figure 10: Employed persons having a second job by occupation in the first job and professional status in the second job, Q2 2021
(in % of employed people aged 20-64, non seasonally adjusted data)
Source: Eurostat special extraction

Source data for tables and graphs

Employment (in detail) Q2 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 note: In Germany, from the first quarter of 2020 onwards, the Labour Force Survey (LFS) has been integrated into the newly designed German microcensus as a subsample. Unfortunately, for the LFS, technical issues and the COVID-19 crisis have had a large impact on the data collection processes, resulting in low response rates and a biased sample. For this reason, the full sample of the whole microcensus has been used to estimate a restricted set of indicators for the four quarters of 2020 for the production of LFS Main Indicators. These estimates have been used for the publication of German results, but also for the calculation of EU and EA aggregates. By contrast, EU and EA aggregates published in the Detailed quarterly results (showing more and different breakdowns than the LFS Main Indicators) have been computed using only available data from the LFS subsample. As a consequence, small differences in the EU and EA aggregates in tables from both collections may be observed. For more information, see here.

Definitions: The concepts and definitions used in the Labour Force Survey follow the guidelines of the International Labour Organisation.

Different articles on detailed technical and methodological information are linked from the overview page of the online publication EU Labour Force Survey.

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 since been diagnosed 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, 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 preventative measures were taken during mid-March 2020, and most of the measures and restrictions were in place for the whole of April and May 2020. The first quarter of 2020 was consequently the first quarter in which the labour market across the EU was affected by COVID-19 measures taken by Member States.

Employment and unemployment as defined by the ILO concept are, in this particular situation, 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.

The quarterly data on employment will allow along the quarters to report on the impact of the economic crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic on employment. This specific article details the evolution of the employed population by occupation, sector of economic activity, and professional status. It complements another article focusing on the age and the level of educational attainment of employed people, as well as on the evolution of part-time employment and temporary contracts, in order to determine potential categories more or less affected by the economic downturn. Both articles are part of the publication Labour market in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic.