The total employment rate for people aged 15-64 in the EU27 rose steadily from 62.4% in 20022 to 65.9% in 2008, but fell to 64.6% in 2009. The employment rate for women, which increased continuously from 53.7% in 20002 to 59.1% in 2008, dropped for the first time in 2009 to 58.6%. In contrast, the rate for older people, i.e. those aged 55-64, has continued to grow, reaching 46.0% in 2009, compared with 36.9% in 20002 and 45.6% in 2008.

In 2009, 217.8 million resident persons in the EU27 aged 15 years or more had a job or a business activity.

This information comes from a report3 published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, based on the results of the 2009 Labour Force Survey.

Male and female employment rates nearly equal in Baltic Member States

In 2009, the employment rate for persons aged 15-64 was above 70% in the Netherlands (77.0%), Denmark (75.7%), Sweden (72.2%), Austria (71.6%) and Germany (70.9%), and below 60% in Malta (54.9%), Hungary (55.4%), Italy (57.5%), Romania (58.6%), Poland (59.3%) and Spain (59.8%).

Denmark (73.1%), the Netherlands (71.5%), Sweden (70.2%) and Finland (67.9%) registered the highest rates of female employment in 2009, while Malta (37.7%), Italy (46.4%), Greece (48.9%) and Hungary (49.9%) had the lowest.

In all Member States the male employment rate was higher than the female rate in 2009, except for Lithuania, where the female rate was 1 percentage point higher than that for men, and Latvia, where the rates were nearly equal. Apart from these Member States, Estonia (1 pp) and Finland (2 pp) recorded the smallest differences between male and female employment rates, while Malta (34 pp), Greece (25 pp) and Italy (22 pp) recorded the greatest.

The employment rate for those aged 55-64 was highest in 2009 in Sweden (70.0%), Estonia (60.4%), Denmark and the United Kingdom (both 57.5%) and Germany (56.2%). It was lowest in Malta (28.1%), Poland (32.3%) and Hungary (32.8%).

Share of part time employment ranged from 2% in Bulgaria to 48% in the Netherlands

The share of part-time employment in total employment4 in the EU27 grew from 15.7% in 2002 to 18.1% in 2009. The highest shares of part-time employment were observed in the Netherlands (47.7%), Sweden (26.0%), Germany (25.4%), Denmark (25.2%) and the United Kingdom (25.0%), and the lowest in Bulgaria (2.1%), Slovakia (3.4%), the Czech Republic (4.8%) and Hungary (5.2%).

Share of limited duration contracts ranged from 1% in Romania to 27% in Poland

The share of employees with limited duration contracts5 in the EU27 grew from 12.3% in 2002 to 14.5% in 2007. It then fell to 14.0% in 2008 and 13.5% in 2009. The highest shares of limited duration contracts were observed in Poland (26.5%), Spain (25.4%), Portugal (22.0%) and the Netherlands (18.2%), and the lowest in Romania (1.0%), Lithuania (2.2%) and Estonia (2.5%).