Brussels, 12/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - In 2005, 197.5 million persons aged at least 15 had a job or some kind of professional activity in the EU25. The total rate of employment of those aged 15-64 was 63.8% (62.4% in 2000 and 63.3% in 2004), and that of women was 56.3% (53.6% in 2000); that of the elderly aged 55 to 64 was 42.5% (36.6% in 2000). This information comes from a Community survey on the labour force in 2005 published by Eurostat (the Statistical Office of the European Communities) in its series Statistics in Focus (Population and social conditions: 13/2006). We give the main conclusions of the survey, according to an Eurostat press release:
1) Employment rates of people aged 15-64 range from 52.8% in Poland to 75.9% in Denmark, 73.2% in the Netherlands, 72.5% in Sweden and 71.7% in the United Kingdom, 52.8% in Poland, 53.9% in Malta, 56.9% in Hungary, 57.6% in Italy and 57.7% in Slovakia. Employment rates for women: the highest rates were recorded in Denmark (71.9%), Sweden (70.4%), Finland (66.5%), the Netherlands (66.4%) and in the United Kingdom (65.9%). The lowest were in Malta (33.7%), Italy (45.3%), Greece (46.1%) and Poland (46.8%). The biggest difference between employment rates for men and women were in Malta (over 48 percentage points), Greece (28 points), Italy (25 points), Spain (24 points) and the lowest were in Finland and Sweden (4 points each) and Estonia (5 points).
2) Temporary employment: On average in the EU, 14.5% of employees had temporary employment in 2005 (compared to 13.7% in 2004). There are big differences between Member States: from 2.7% in Estonia, 3.7% in Ireland, 4.5% in Malta, to 33.3% in Spain, 25.7% in Poland and 19.5% in Portugal. For women, the average temporary employment rate is 15% compared to 14% for men, but bigger differences are noted in Cyprus (19.5% for women and 9% for men), Finland (20% compared to 12.9%) and Belgium (11.4% compared to 6.8%).
3) Job hunting by the unemployed: In 2005, on average, 18.3% of those unemployed in the EU25 had never worked, this percentage ranging from 8.9% in Finland and 9.2% in Germany to 37.3% in Greece and 33.6% in Italy. For the long-term unemployed, 4.1% of the active population of the EU25 was without employment for at least one year (1% in the United Kingdom, 1.1% in Denmark but 11.7% in Slovakia and 10.2% in Poland).
4) Employment in services: In 2005, 2/3 of jobs in the EU were in the services sector, a percentage reached in all countries, Eurostat notes. Services account for 56.3% of jobs for men and 81.9% of jobs for women. 81% of workers in Luxembourg, 76.5% in the United Kingdom, 76.1% in the Netherlands and 75.8% in Sweden have employment in the tertiary sector; - industry provides 27.5% of jobs (38% for men and 14.2% for women). The largest proportion of jobs in industry was recorded in the Czech Republic (39.5%), followed by Slovakia (38.8%) and Slovenia (37.1%). On average in the EU25, agriculture was the main activity of 4.9% of workers, and accounted for over 10% of employment in Poland (17.4%), Lithuania (14.0%), Greece (12.4%), Latvia and Portugal (both 11.8%).