Archive:Statistics on employment characteristics of households
Data extracted in May 2019.
Planned article update: May 2019.
Highlights
This article presents the main results regarding mainly employment for 2018 of the EU Labour force survey (LFS); for the European Union (EU) as a whole, for all EU Member States individually, as well as for the three EFTA countries and the three current candidate countries.
This article mainly complements the articles Employment Statistics, Employment rates and Europe 2020 national targets, Underemployment and potential additional labour force statistics and Unemployment statistics and beyond.
It consists out of two sections: in the first part the focus is on the labour market using household information, while the second part is dedicated to specific groups inside and outside the labour market.
Full article
Main household types involved in the labour market
Adults working in private households
The most common household type in the EU-28 in 2018, seen from a labour market perspective, was the household where all adults were working (44.3% of all private households) (Figure 1). This was followed by the household where none of the adults were working (35.4%). In the remaining 20.3% of the households, at least one adult was working.
Among the EU Member States, Sweden had the highest percentage of households where all adults were working (64.3%), Greece had the highest percentage of households where no adults were working (44.4%) and Croatia had the highest percentage of households where at least one adult was working (34.1%).
For further information about household composition see: Statistics Explained article Household composition statistics .
Having children effects the part-time employment rate
Whether or not a person has children in the household does effect the way on how he or she participates in the labour market. For this reason, Figures 2 and 3 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 2018 in the EU-28, more than 1 women in 3 with children, within this age range, worked on a part-time basis (35.4%). Being a part-timer differs highly between men and women (Figure 2). This difference by gender becomes even bigger when persons have children. In all countries, the proportion of women with children, aged 25-49 years, 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 30.3 percentage points in EU-28 in 2018. Concerning men and women without children, the gap is lower (10.6 percentage point).
In Romania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, differences between men and women and whether or not they have children, are rather small. In, among others, these countries, part-time employment rates are low. In addition, countries such as Denmark, Finland, Greece, Slovenia, Portugal and Croatia show almost no differences between female employees that have or do not have children. However the most common pattern is that having children does influence the female part-time work rate. The main examples are Germany (24.2% of women without children vs. 65.3% of women with children), Austria (28.1% vs. 65.6%) and the United Kingdom (15.5% vs. 51.3%) . This suggests that women in these countries tend to shift to part-time work from the moment on they have children.
When both men and woman have children and when the youngest child is younger than 12 years old, the part-time rate increases, as shown in Figure 3. In the EU-28, 39.1% of women (aged 25-49 years) who are employed and have one or more children, of which the youngest child is 5 years or younger, worked part-time in 2018. The corresponding figures for women with children, with the youngest child having an age of 6-11 years or 12 years or older is 36.3 and 29.0% respectively. On the opposite, the part-time work rate of men (aged 25-49 years) having children is, relatively seen, not affected by the age of the children: it nearly always stays below 10%. The only exception is in the Netherlands, where 17.3, 13.2 and 12.2 percent of men with a youngest child of 5 years or younger, 6-11 years or 12 years and older respectively, worked on a part-time basis. In addition, although the male part-time employment rate is 10% in Sweden as well, it is clearly visible that men with children, with the youngest in the family in the age of younger than five years old, the part-time rate is almost doubled in comparison to men having a youngest child in the age of 6-11 years old.
Moreover, the higher the number of children in a household, the higher the part-time employment rate of both men and women, especially in case the youngest child is in the age of 11 years or younger.
Labour market analysis at individual level
Sub-populations in the Labour Force
The main sub-populations and their relative and absolute size, as defined in the Labour Force Survey (LFS) are shown in Infographic 1. Among the total EU population in 2018, the Labour Force consisted out of 380.4 million, aged 15-74 years (employment and unemployment); 246.7 million of them were economically active ; 133.8 million were consequently economically inactive. Furthermore, 229.8 million persons were in employment , while 16.9 million were unemployed. Among people in employment, employees (195.0 million) outnumbered self-employed persons (32.6 million) by far, and full-time work (183.9 million) was much more common than part-time work (45.9 million).
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Infographic 1: Labour market in the EU, 2018
Click on the image for an interactive view of the data. Click on the arrow icons to expand the bars.
Employees versus self-employed persons
Of the working population, the vast majority of persons are employees, namely 84.9 percent of the EU-28 population aged 15-74 in 2018 (Figure 4). In general, employees outnumber self-employed persons by a wide margin an all EU-28 countries. In only four countries, the proportion of employees, is below 75 percent (in Romania, Greece as well as in the candidate countries Serbia and Turkey). Five countries have more than nine out of ten working persons as employees (Denmark, Luxembourg, Sweden, Germany as well as the EFTA country Norway).
One in ten persons in employment was self-employed without employees (own-account workers) (10.2%) and 4.0% was an employer (self-employed with employees) in the EU-28 in 2018. However, the levels differ substantially between countries; in Greece own-account workers make up close to a quarter of persons in employment (22.2%) while in Denmark the same group accounts for 4.5%. Self-employed persons with employees are less common, ranging from 1.1% in Romania to 7.6% in Greece.
In the EU-28, in 2018, 48.1% of the employees (15-74 years) are of the females sex, 51.9% is male (Figure 5). Consequently, the 28 Member States are close to the gender balance for the rate of employees. However, we are not there yet; shares differ between Member States while the percentage of women among employees ranges from 52.0% in Lithuania to 43.57% in Malta.
When it comes to self-employed people, the picture changes markedly, especially for the self-employed with employees. At EU level, there were about two self-employed men without employees for each self-employed woman without employees in 2018 (34.7% of self-employed without employees were women) and almost three self-employed men with employees for each self-employed woman with employees in 2018 (26.6 percent of self-employed with employees were women). In Malta one self-employed with employees in five was female (21.0%) and in Turkey this was less than 9% in 2018.
For additional information about the self-employed persons, see: Self-employment statistics.
Weekly hours spent on the main job
Considering the main job, the average working week of employed people in the EU in 2018, consisted out of 37.1 hours. Among EU Member States, the longest working week can be found in Greece (42.0 hours per week) and the shortest is in the Netherlands (30.4 hours per week). If all EU-LFS participating countries are taken into account, the longest working weeks are recorded in Turkey (45.7 hours per week) (Map 1). It is important to note that these numbers are influenced by several components, e.g. part-time (more part-time means lower average hours), the composition of the economic activities (working weeks are longer for farmers, construction workers, manufacturing workers), the proportion of self-employed (self-employed work longer hours) and the activity rate of women (women have a higher rate of part-time work).
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When only full-time employees are considered, the EU average working week in the main job in 2018 corresponds to 41.2 hours (Map 2). Men had a longer working week than women, working on average 42.1 hours compared with 39.8 hours for women. Those in the mining and quarrying industry worked the longest hours (42.4 hours), while the shortest working week is to be found in the education sector (38.2 hours). Looking at countries' situation, three EU Member States (the United Kingdom and Austria, both 42.5 hours and Greece 44.2 hours) had an average working week (full-time employees) superior to 42 hours. Outside the EU, almost all full-time employees had an average working week longer than 42 hours (with people in Norway as an exception): Switzerland (42.9 hours), the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (43.0 hours), Serbia (43.9 hours) , Iceland (44.4 hours), Montenegro (45.0 hours) and Turkey where 48.9 hours per week were recorded. The majority of the EU member states (24 countries) had full-time employees working between 40 and less than 42 hours per week.
Economically inactive due to education, illness, retirement or care responsibilities
In order to complement the analysis of the employment and unemployment rates, in the following part the focus is on the inactivity rate, which gives an indication of the percentage of economically inactive persons out of the total adult population in a country. These people can stay outside the labour market for many different reasons: they can be for instance in education, retired, staying at home to look after children, ill or incapacitated dependents.
Figure 6 shows that the situation of men and women in 2018 in the EU-28. It shows, independent of gender, very similar figures regarding inactivity due to education or due to retirement. In the age group 15-24, 49.2% of men were economically inactive due to education in comparison to 52.2% of women. In the older age group (50-74 years), the share of inactivity because of retirement or illness was 38.9% for men and 40.0% for women. However, when it comes to staying outside the labour market because of family obligations, the shares for men and women differ widely. In 2018, for persons aged 25-49, only 0.3% of men were economically inactive because they had to look after children or incapacitated adults or due to other family or personal responsibilities. The corresponding percentages for women were, respectively, more than 24 and 10 times higher, i.e. 7.3 and 3.0%.
Discouraged job seekers can be found among economically inactive people (Figure 7). They are those who would like to work, but they have given up looking for a job because they believe that it is not possible to find one. It is key to understand that a high inactivity rate will push the unemployment rate down, as it takes these persons out of the equation for the unemployment rate. At the EU level the discouraged job seekers made up 0.8% of men and 1.2% of women aged 15-74 in 2018.
There are notable differences between countries: Portugal, Italy and Croatia as well as the candidate countries Serbia and Montenegro have relatively many discouraged job seekers. This group of persons, however, is almost non-existent in Czechia, Denmark and in the United Kingdom. In 13 EU Member States, women are more frequently discouraged job-seekers than men. This gap is the largest in Portugal (2.3 percentage points) followed by Italy (1.4 percentage points) and Croatia (0.7 percentage points). However, in five EU Member States (Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Ireland, Estonia) men tend to be more often discouraged job-seekers than women. In the remaining countries there are no differences between sexes.
A more comprehensive analysis of all the aspects of underemployment is published at Underemployment and potential additional labour force statistics.
Foreign workers in the EU
Another interesting analysis of the labour market concerns the influence of the country of birth on the employment rate. Figure 8 shows that, during the period 2006-2018, the EU-born migrants (those born in a different EU Member State than the one they live in) recorded systematically higher employment rates than the non-EU-born migrants (migrants born outside the EU) and the native-born population (persons born in the same country as the one they living in). Until 2008, the non-EU-born migrants have slightly higher employment rates than the native-born population. Starting from 2009 onwards, the employment rate of non-EU-born migrants falls under the one of the native-born population.
In 2018, the EU-28 employment rate for the EU-born migrants aged 15-74 years, was 66.5%; this is, respectively, 6.2 and 8.2 percentage points higher than the rate recorded for native-born population (60.3 percent) and non-EU-born migrants (58.3 percent).
The employment rate of EU-born migrants aged 15-74 years crossed by gender is shown Figure 9. In EU-28, the employment rate of men, born in an EU Member State other than the country of residence, was 73.3 percent in 2018. For women this was 60.3 percent (gender gap of 13.0 percentage points). In all countries the employment rate of male EU-born migrants was higher than the employment rate of female EU-born migrants. This gap is the largest in Slovakia (40.6 percentage points) and the smallest in Lithuania (2.2 percentage points). Portugal and Iceland are the only countries where both male and female rates are higher than 75%.
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The gender gap in the employment rate for the non-EU born migrants is illustrated by Figure 10. The employment rate of female non-EU-born migrants is lower than the employment rate of male non-EU-born migrants in all countries. In 3 out of the 27 EU Member States for which data are available in 2018 (no data available for Romania), the gender gap is larger than 20 percentage points (namely Bulgaria, Italy and Greece). In Turkey the gap even reaches 42.3 percentage points with only 20.8% of female non-EU-born migrants in employment. In four member states, the employment rate for female non-EU-born migrants was less than 45 percent: Greece (37.9 percent), France (40.6%) and Belgium and Croatia (both 40.7%).
A more in-depth analysis of migrant statistics is published: Migrant integration statistics.
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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 the candidate countries. Conscripts in military or community service are not included in the results.
Data on Labour Market and Labour Force Statistics
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), 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-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.
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