Whereas most workers work on a full-time schedule, part-time jobs have gotten extra widespread as employees search for higher flexibility and a greater work-life steadiness. Companies may be eager to rent part-time to restrict prices and deal with shifting workloads.
In response to Eurostat, 17.1% of employed individuals within the EU labored part-time in 2024. The company defines a part-time employee as somebody whose traditional working hours are decrease than these of a comparable full-time employee of their most important job.
The OECD notes that this normally means working fewer than 30 hours per week, and this is applicable to each workers and the self-employed.
Charges throughout Europe
Throughout 33 European nations, the part-time employment price ranges from 1.5% in Bulgaria to 40.5% in Switzerland, intently adopted by the Netherlands at 38.9%
The speed can be very excessive in Austria and Germany, the place roughly three in ten individuals work part-time.
On the different finish of the rating, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Croatia, Slovakia, and Hungary all see charges beneath 5%.
The figures paint a regional sample throughout Europe, exhibiting that part-time work is usually a lot much less widespread within the Balkans and Japanese Europe than in Western and Northern Europe.
Ladies, younger individuals, and older employees
“Ladies, younger individuals, older employees, and people with lowered work capability usually tend to choose part-time employment. Subsequently, nations the place these teams have excessive employment charges are inclined to exhibit greater ranges of part-time work,” Rasa Mieziene and Sandra Krutuliene from Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences instructed Euronews Enterprise.
For instance, they defined that in 2024, the Netherlands had the very best employment price of ladies within the EU, 12.7 proportion factors above the EU common. Youth employment (15–24) within the Netherlands was greater than 40 factors greater, and the employment price of older employees (60–64) was over 15 factors greater.
“All of those indicators have been effectively above the EU-27 averages. In contrast, in nations the place these teams are much less energetic within the labour market, part-time employment ranges are usually decrease,” they mentioned.
For instance, in Bulgaria, the youth employment price was lower than half of the EU common.
“Half-time jobs are additionally extra widespread in service-oriented sectors — comparable to retail, well being, training, and hospitality — the place staffing wants differ all through the day or week,” Mieziene and Krutuliene mentioned.
Companies vs. manufacturing
The researchers additionally famous that employers use part-time contracts to attain staffing flexibility, scale back labour prices, and adapt to fluctuating demand. As an illustration, mini-jobs represent a major section of the German labour market and generate numerous part-time positions.
In response to 2023 ILO statistics, employment within the companies sector accounted for over 80% of whole employment in Sweden, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, whereas it was considerably decrease in South Japanese European nations (Bulgaria, Romania) or Central European nations (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary).
“Most Japanese European economies are extra manufacturing-oriented, the place full-time jobs are the norm,” they added.
Wage stage is one other driver. Mieziene and Krutuliene identified that in higher-wage economies, part-time work can nonetheless present enough revenue, whereas in lower-wage economies, it will not be financially viable — decreasing each employee curiosity and employer choices.
“This helps clarify why part-time employment stays comparatively low in lots of Japanese European nations,” they mentioned.
Dramatic gender hole
There’s additionally a powerful gender sample. Half-time employment is far greater amongst girls than males, totalling 27.8% in comparison with 7.7%.
In Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Austria, greater than half of ladies in employment work part-time. Germany can be very near that stage.
Romania is the one exception the place the speed is barely greater amongst males, and in Bulgaria there isn’t a hole.
If the part-time employment price is low, the gender hole is smaller in absolute numbers however can nonetheless be massive in relative phrases.
“A key motive (for the hole) is historic variations in each the place of ladies within the labour market and extra normal labour market developments,” Prof Mara Yerkes from Utrecht College instructed Euronews Enterprise.
She famous that within the Netherlands, the historic growth of part-time work was initially pushed by the necessity for extra employees throughout labour shortages within the Nineteen Sixties. In 1957, the Netherlands repealed its ‘marriage bar’ regulation that required girls to go away sure jobs upon marrying.
“Slowly, part-time work turned seen as a method for ladies to mix care duties with paid work — as they have been — and usually nonetheless are — seen because the individual answerable for most care and family duties,” she mentioned.
Mara Yerkes acknowledged that in varied nations, part-time work was solidified by different labour market developments, for instance the will for a collective discount of working hours in alternate for moderation in wage development within the early Eighties. In consequence, part-time jobs have change into quite common, accepted and guarded, resulting in their ongoing recognition, notably amongst girls.
Stan De Spiegelaere of Ghent College additionally identifies a number of components influencing part-time employment charges. These embrace shifting cultural norms surrounding girls’s work and stagnant wages that make full-time employment inadequate as a ‘household wage’, forcing individuals to search out aspect jobs. He moreover factors to insufficient infrastructure that limits moms’ skill to work full-time, in addition to the growing flexibilisation of labour rules in nations comparable to Germany.