Brussels, 24/07/2008 (Agence Europe) - In 2007, 218.5 million resident persons in the EU27 aged 15 years or more had a job or a business activity, according to a survey published by Eurostat on Tuesday 22 July.
Findings indicate that the total employment rate for people aged 15-64 was 65.4% in 2007, compared with 62.1% in 20002 and 64.5% in 2006. It was above 70% in Denmark (77.1%), the Netherlands (76.0%), Sweden (74.2%), Austria (71.4%), the United Kingdom (71.3%), Cyprus (71.0%) and Finland (70.3%) and below 60% in Malta (55.7%), Poland (57.0%), Hungary (57.3%), Italy (58.7%) and Romania (58.8%).
In the EU27, the employment rate for women was 58.3% in 2007, up from 53.6% in 20002 and 57.3% in 2006. Denmark (73.2%), Sweden (71.8%), the Netherlands (69.6%) and Finland (68.5%) registered the highest rates of female employment in 2007, while Malta (36.9%), Italy (46.6%) and Greece (47.9%) had the lowest. The smallest differences between male and female employment rates were recorded in Finland 4 percentage points), Sweden (5pp) and Lithuania (6pp). At the other end of the scale, Malta (37 pp) recorded the greatest difference, followed by Greece (27 pp), Italy (24 pp) and Spain (22 pp). The rate for people aged 55-64 was also up, to 44.7% from 36.8% in 2000 and 43.5% in 2006. It was highest in Sweden (70.0%), Estonia (60.0%) and Denmark (58.6%), and lowest in Malta (28.3%), Poland (29.7%) and Luxembourg (32.0%).
In 2007, 18.2% of persons in the EU27 in employment worked part time. The highest shares of part-time employment were observed in the Netherlands (46.8%), followed by Germany (26.0%), the United Kingdom (25.5%) and Sweden (25.0%) and the lowest in Bulgaria (1.7%), Slovakia (2.6%), Hungary (4.1%) and the Czech Republic (5.0%). (A.B./transl.rt)