Employment is a top priority for the EU. In order to become the world’s most dynamic and competitive economy, it must create more and better jobs for its citizens. It must also ensure equal opportunities, so that everyone who wants to can work. The aim is to achieve an employment rate of 70% by 2010.
How many people work in EU
In 2005 , 63.8 % of people of working age in the EU-25 had jobs. However, the employment rate varies across the EU. It is also different for men and women.Tackling unemployment is vital for the EU. The unemployment rate varies from one country and region to another. In 2005 Ireland had the lowest level of unemployment while Poland had the highest.Overall, 8.7% of the EU’s labour force was unemployed in 2005 , compared with 5.1% in the United States.In the 1950s, over 20% of people in the EU (only six countries at the time) worked in farming and around 40% in industry. By 2003, those figures had dropped to 5.2 and 25.5% for the EU-25.Meanwhile, the services sector has been growing fast and it now employs more than two-thirds of the EU’s workforce.
In each age bracket, more men than women have jobs in the EU. This is sometimes due to discrimination in the workplace, sometimes the result of personal choice or cultural traditions.
In all EU countries, women earn (on average) less than men. This ‘gender pay gap’ is widest in Cyprus, where women earned 25% less than men in 2004 . It is narrowest ( 4%) in Malta . If the EU is to increase the size of its working population, better pay and conditions are needed to attract more women into the labour market.
The EU must also keep people of both genders working longer. It is making a special effort to help people of all ages to find jobs and keep them. That includes policies to encourage part-time work and to remove conflicts between career and private life. BACK
