In 2007 in the EU27, the employment rate was 72.5% for men and 58.3% for women, compared with 70.7% and 53.6% respectively in 2000. This means that employment rates for both men and women have increased over this period, and that the difference in rates between men and women has narrowed from 17.1 percentage points in 2000 to 14.2 pp in 2007.

This information comes from a report published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, based on the results of the 2007 Labour Force Survey.

Largest gap in employment rates between men and women in Malta, smallest in Finland

In all Member States, the employment rate for men was higher than for women, both in 2000 and in 2007. The evolution of the gender gap was not uniform; the gap decreased in nineteen Member States between 2000 and 2007 and increased in the remaining eight. The largest decreases in the gap between men and women were found in Luxembourg (25.0 pp in 2000 compared with 16.2 pp in 2007), Spain (29.8 pp compared with 21.5 pp) and Cyprus (25.6 pp compared with 17.6 pp). The gap increased most in Slovakia (10.5 pp in 2000 compared with 15.4 pp in 2007) and Lithuania (2.9 pp compared with 5.7 pp).

The Member States with the smallest employment gender gaps in 2007 were Finland (3.6 pp), Sweden (4.7 pp) and Lithuania (5.7 pp), and those with the largest were Malta (37.3 pp), Greece (27.0 pp), Italy (24.1 pp) and Spain (21.5 pp).

Highest share of part-time employment for both women and men in the Netherlands

In the EU27 in 2007, 30.7% of employed women and 6.9% of employed men worked part-time. This has only changed slightly since 2000, when 28.7% of employed women and 5.9% of employed men worked part-time.

In 2007, the Member State with the highest share of part-time employment for both women and men was the Netherlands (22.5% for men and 74.8% for women). Denmark (12.5%) and Sweden (10.5%) followed for men, Germany (45.3%) and the United Kingdom (41.6%) for women.

Both in 2007 and in 2000 the share of part-time employment was higher for women than for men in all Member States. From 2000 to 2007 this gap increased slightly from 22.8 pp to 23.8 pp in the EU27. The gap rose in seventeen Member States and fell in nine. The highest increase was observed in Malta, where the difference between the shares of women and men in part-time employment rose from 10.4 pp in 2000 to 20.9 pp in 2007, followed by Luxembourg (24.1 pp to 34.5 pp) and Italy (13.6 pp to 22.2 pp). The largest decreases were registered in the United Kingdom (35.9 pp to 32.2 pp) and Romania (3.8 pp to 0.6 pp).