European Labour Force Survey 1996

The European Union
Eurostat

The 1996 European Labour Force Survey indicated 149.3 million people in the EU with a job, according to a report out today by Eurostat, Statistical Office of the European Communities in Luxembourg. This was an EU employment rate of 49.4% in the survey week in spring last year.

Eighteen million people - almost half of them women - had no job but were available and looking for work. Nearly five million of these were under 25.

Other key findings:

• Highest employment rate was Denmark's 60.7%, lowest Spain's 37.9%.
• 16.3% (24.3 m) of those with jobs said they worked part-time; 80.6% of these were women. Some 16.6 m part-timers said they were not available for full-time work; 83.0% of these were women.
• EU-wide, 31.5% of female employment is part-time; highest is the Netherlands' 68.3% followed by the UK's 44.8%. Nearly two million unemployed women said they were looking for a part-time job.
• Of the 124.8 m people with a full-time job, only a third were women.
• 14.1% of employees had a 'contract of limited duration'. This ranged from 2.6% in Luxembourg to 33.6% in Spain. The EU figure for the under-25s was 35.1% (75.4% in Spain).

Jobless rate of 10.7%

• All this gave the EU a jobless rate of 10.7% in the week in question. Lowest was Luxembourg's 3.3%, highest Spain's 22.2% with Finland next at 15.6%.
• 48.3% of jobless had been looking for work for over a year.
• 49.6% of jobless had not completed upper secondary education.
• 20.5% of the unemployed were looking for their first job - 53.7% in Italy.

Nearly two-thirds work in services

• Of the 124.8 m in full-time work, 102.6 m were employees (91.5 m with a permanent job, 10.4 m with a temporary one), 19.9 m were self-employed and 2.3 m were family-workers⁴. Women accounted for little more than a fifth of the self-employed but two-thirds of family-workers.
• 64.9% of total jobs were in the service sector (79.3% of women's jobs). Employment in services was lowest in Portugal and Greece at around 57%.
• EU-wide, 5.1% were employed in agriculture - as high as 20.3% in Greece.
• Highest employment in industry was in Germany (36%). EU-wide it was 30.0%.
• Across the EU, those in full-time work averaged a 40.3-hour week. Highest figure was for UK men - 45.7. And UK women topped the EU average with 40.6, ahead of women in all other Member States.
• Among the 135.1 m people classified as 'non-active', over five million women said they would like to have work but were not seeking it. Nearly 75 m women and nearly 20 m under-25s indicated they 'did not want to have work'.

Note: The survey is based on people living in private households. Children under the age of 15 are not considered to be in the labour force. Concepts and definitions follow International Labour Organisation guidelines.