Eurozone countries in blue

In 2005, 197.5 million people aged 15 years or more had a job or a business activity in the EU25.

The total employment rate¹ for people aged 15-64 was 63.8%, compared to 62.4% in 2000², and 63.3% in 2004³. The employment rate for women in 2005 was 56.3%, compared to 53.6% in 2000, while the rate for older people, i.e. those aged 55-64, reached 42.5%, up from the 36.6% registered in 2000.

This information comes from a report⁴ published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Commission, based on the results of the 2005 Labour Force Survey.

Employment rates of people aged 15-64 range from 52.8% in Poland to 75.9% in Denmark

In 2005, the employment rate for persons aged 15-64 was above 70% in Denmark (75.9%), the Netherlands (73.2%), Sweden (72.5%) and the United Kingdom (71.7%) and Ireland (67.6%, and below 60% in Poland (52.8%), Malta (53.9%), Hungary (56.9%), Italy (57.6%) and Slovakia (57.7%).

Denmark (71.9%), Sweden (70.4%), Finland (66.5%), the Netherlands (66.4%) and the United Kingdom (65.9%) registered the highest rates of female employment in 2005, while Malta (33.7%), Italy (45.3%), Greece (46.1%) and Poland (46.8%) had the lowest. Malta recorded the greatest difference between male and female employment rates, with a gap of 40 percentage points, followed by Greece (28 pp), Italy (25 pp) and Spain (24 pp). On the other hand, Finland and Sweden (both 4 pp), and Estonia (5 pp) recorded the lowest differences.

Large variation between countries in percentage of temporary jobs

On average in the EU25, 14.5% of employees aged 15 or more had a temporary job⁵ in 2005, up from 13.7% in 2004. The percentage of employees with temporary jobs varied widely across Member States, from 2.7% in Estonia, 3.7% in Ireland and 4.5% in Malta, to 33.3% in Spain, 25.7% in Poland and 19.5% in Portugal.

The percentage of women employed in temporary jobs in the EU25 was 15.0%, compared to 14.0% for men. In 17 of the 25 EU Member States, the share of women with temporary jobs was larger than that of men, with the largest differences being observed in Cyprus (19.5% for women compared to 9.0% for men), Finland (20.0% compared to 12.9%) and Belgium (11.4% compared to 6.8%).

Close to one in five of the unemployed looking for their first job

Among the unemployed in the EU25 in 2005, 18.3% had never had a job, ranging from 8.9% in Finland and 9.2% in Germany to 37.3% in Greece and 33.6% in Italy.

As far as long-term unemployment is concerned, 4.1% of the active population in the EU25 had been without work for at least a year. This percentage varied from 1.0% in the United Kingdom and 1.1% in Denmark to 11.7% in Slovakia and 10.2% in Poland.

Employment and unemployment rates, 2005 (%)

The reliability of data shown in brackets may be affected by small sample sizes.

: Data not available.

Two thirds of the workforce employed in services

Two thirds of jobs in the EU25 in 2005 were in services⁶, and in no country was it less than 50%. Services accounted for 56.3% of jobs for men and 81.9% for women. In Luxembourg (81.0%), the United Kingdom (76.5%), the Netherlands (76.1%) and Sweden (75.8%) more than three quarters of workers were engaged in the services sector.

Industry provided jobs for 27.5% of the employed in the EU25 in 2005, accounting for 38.0% of jobs for men, compared to 14.2% for women. The Czech Republic had the highest proportion of jobs in industry (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%).

Employed persons aged 15 or more by economic activity in the main job, 2005 (%)

The reliability of data shown in brackets may be affected by small sample sizes

u Data not reliable due to very small sample size.

* In Bulgaria, due to the very high proportion of persons active in agriculture in addition to another occupation, the Labour Force Survey does not provide a precise estimate of total employment in this sector.

1. The employment rate represents employed persons aged 15-64 as a percentage of the same age population. Persons in employment are those who did any work for pay or profit for at least one hour during the reference week of the survey, or who were not working but had jobs from which they were temporarily absent. Family workers are included.
2. In 2000, the Lisbon European Council set long-term targets for employment rates for 2010: 70% for the population aged 15-64 and 60% for women of the same age group. The 2001 Stockholm European Council set mid-term employment targets to be reached in 2005: 67% for the total employment rate and 57% for the female employment rate. The Stockholm Council also set a long term target for the employment rate of persons aged 55-64: 50% in 2010.
3. See News Release 112/2005 of 8 September 2005.
4. Eurostat, Statistics in focus, Population and social conditions, 13/2006 “EU Labour Force Survey – Principal results 2005.”
5. Employees with a temporary job are those who declare themselves as having an employment contract or a job which will terminate either after a period fixed in advance, or after a period not known in advance, but nevertheless defined by objective criteria, such as the completion of an assignment or the period of absence of an employee temporarily replaced.
6. Market and non-market services