Malta registers lowest female employment rate in the EU

Employment statistics covering the 25 EU states showed that in 2003 Malta had the lowest number of women in the labour market and one of the lowest employment rates for both sexes.

Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, said that in 2003, 192.8 million people aged 15 years and over had a job in the EU25. The total employment rate for people aged 15-64 was 63 per cent, and the employment rate for women was 55.1 per cent. The employment rate for people aged 55-64 was 40.2 per cent.

According to information based on the Labour Force Survey, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden had the highest employment rates while, Poland, Malta and Italy recorded the lowest rate of people working.

Malta's statistics turn out much worse if the female participation rate in the labour market is taken into consideration.

In fact Malta ranks last out of the 25 EU states. Sweden (71.5 per cent) and Denmark (70.5 per cent) registered the highest rates of female employment in 2003, while Malta (33.6 per cent), Italy (42.7 per cent) and Greece (43.8 per cent) had the lowest. Malta recorded also the greatest difference between male and female employment rates, with a gap of 41 percentage points, followed by Greece, Spain and Italy, where the gaps were nearly 30 percentage points.

On the other hand, Sweden (three percentage points), Finland (four) and Lithuania (six) recorded the lowest differences.

As regards part-time work the Netherlands tops the rankings, followed by the UK and Sweden.

Among the 160.9 million employees in the EU25 in 2003, 12.9 per cent had a contract with limited duration or, as they are known in Malta, definite contract. Spain (30.6 per cent), Portugal (20.6 per cent), Poland (19.4 per cent), Finland (16.3 per cent) and Sweden (15.1 per cent) registered the highest percentages of employees with a temporary contract while the lowest were observed in Estonia (2.5 per cent), Luxembourg (3.2 per cent), Malta (3.6 per cent) and Slovakia (4.9 per cent).