12 October 2007

AMSTERDAM - A report on gender differences concerning employment in the EU shows that 31.6 percent of women and 7.8 percent of men work part-time.

The European labour force survey (LFS) shows that women in France are the only ones who meet that average at 31.2 percent. Way above the average with 75 percent of women working part time is the Netherlands, followed by Germany with 46.4 percent female part-time workers and Belgium with 40.8 percent.

Spain is the only country below average with women working part-time an average of 23.9 percent. For men, Belgian part-timers are close to the average at 7.7 percent. France and Spain are lower at 5.7 percent and 4.5 percent. Germany is higher at 9.8 percent, whereas the Netherlands is well above the average at 23.3 percent.
 
For temporary contracts of employment, the EU average is 14.6 percent women and 13.5 percent men. France and Germany are close to the average for both women and men at 13.9 percent and 12.1 percent for the French and 14.2 percent and 14.6 percent for the Germans. Belgium is below the average for both sexes with 10.8 percent of women and 6.6 percent of men as temps. The Netherlands and Spain are higher than average for both sexes. 18.8 percent of Dutch women and 15.7 percent of Dutch men work with temp contracts while Spain is well above the average at 33.2 percent for women and 31 percent for men.
 
LFS reveals that an average EU employee's working week is 33.5 hours for women and 40.9 hours for men. Belgium, France, Germany and Spain are all close to the average for both women and men. The Belgian woman's average work week is 32.8 hrs for women and 40.9 hrs for men; 33.7 hrs and 40.4 hrs for France; 30.4 hrs and 40.9 hrs for Germany; and 35.2 hrs and 41.7 hrs for Spain. The Netherlands is below the average with women only working an average of 25.2 hrs and men 37.4 hrs.
 
In the EU, the overall employment rate is 57.4 percent for women and 71.5 percent for men. Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain are all higher than the average. 60 percent of women and 74.2 percent of men are employed in Belgium; 64.3 percent of women and 74.4 percent of men in France; 69.7 percent and 81.6 percent in Germany; 71.5 percent and 84.4 percent in the Netherlands; and 61 percent and 81 percent in Spain.

[Copyright Expatica 2007]