In 2006, 214.0 million people aged 15 years or more had a job or a business activity in the EU27. The total employment rate1 for people aged 15-64 was 64.4% in 2006, compared with 62.2% in 20002 and 63.4% in 2005.

The employment rate for women was 57.2% in 2006, compared with 53.7% in 20002 and 56.0% in 2005, and the rate for older people, i.e. those aged 55-64, was 43.5%, up from 36.9% in 20002 and 42.2% in 2005.

Employment rates of people aged 15-64 ranged from 54.5% in Poland to 77.4% in Denmark

In 2006, the employment rate for persons aged 15-64 was above 70% in Denmark (77.4%), the Netherlands (74.3%), Sweden (73.1%), the United Kingdom (71.5%) and Austria (70.2%), and below 60% in Poland (54.5%), Malta (54.8%), Hungary (57.3%), Italy (58.4%), Bulgaria (58.6%), Romania (58.8%) and Slovakia (59.4%).

Denmark (73.4%), Sweden (70.7%), the Netherlands (67.7%), Finland (67.3%) and the United Kingdom (65.8%) registered the highest rates of female employment in 2006, while Malta (34.9%), Italy (46.3%), Greece (47.4%) and Poland (48.2%) had the lowest. Malta recorded the greatest difference between male and female employment rates, with a gap of 40 percentage points, followed by Greece (27 pp), Italy (24 pp) and Spain (23 pp). On the other hand, Finland (4 pp), Lithuania and Sweden (both 5 pp) recorded the lowest differences.

The employment rate for those aged 55-64 was highest in Sweden (69.6%), Denmark (60.7%) and Estonia (58.5%), while the lowest rates were found in Poland (28.1%), Malta (30.0%) and Belgium (32.0%).

Longest working hours in Austria and the United Kingdom

In the EU27 in 2006, full-time employees usually worked 40.5 hours per week on average. The longest usual working hours were observed in Austria and the United Kingdom (both 42.4 hours per week usually worked), Latvia (42.2) and Slovenia (41.4). The Netherlands (38.9), Belgium (39.0), France (39.1) and Finland (39.2) registered the shortest usual working hours for full-time employees.