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Unemployment in Europe

In Europe, 2.2 million women lost their jobs in 2020

Women’s work situation has been hardest hit during the pandemic according to a number of studies. When vaccinations now slowly start having an effect so that we hopefully will move forward to what can perhaps be called a new normal, the question is how women’s work situation will recover.

During the summer 2020, total employment in the European Union increased but according to European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), women gained only half as many jobs as men. EIGE’s conclusion is that this shows that the economic impact of the pandemic is having longer lasting effects for women.

Carlien Scheele, EIGE’s Director says that Europe will bounce back, as long as gender equality is front and centre of recovery measures. In a small win for gender equality, Member States will have to show how their economic recovery plans promote gender equality in order to access the EU’s recovery fund.

GOVERNMENTS SHOULD INVEST WISELY

When the EU now hopefully will bounce back, this statement should be remembered by European governments deciding how to use the money provided by the EU rescue plan.

Prior to the pandemic, EU’s statistical off office – Eurostat – noted a positive development for women employment but also noted that women’s employment rate still remained lower than men’s.

HIGH EU UNEMPLOYMENT RATES DRIVEN BY WOMEN

The share of persons outside the labour market in the European Union (meaning persons being neither employed or unemployed) of the working age population (aged 15-64) in was 31.4% in 2002 and reached a new low of 26.3% in 2018. The decrease in persons outside the labour market was mainly explained by more women being employed.

The share of women outside the labour market fell by 7.7 percentage points (p.p.), 2002-2018 from 39.5 % to 31.8 %, while the share of men outside the labour market decreased by only 2.4 p.p. (from 23.2 % in 2002 to 20.8 % in 2018).

In 2018, the employment rate for women (aged between 20-64) in the European Union (EU) stood at 67%, one percentage-point (pp) increase from the previous year and 5 pp higher than in 2008. However, the employment rate for women was still 12 pp less than the corresponding rate for men of the same age.

Among EU Member States, Sweden had the highest employment rate for women (80%) with Greece (49%) and Italy (53%) reporting the lowest rates.

Across all Member States, the employment rate for men was higher than that of women. Nevertheless, this gender employment gap has narrowed from 15 pp in 2008 to 12 pp in 2018.

THERE ARE DEGREES ALSO IN HELL

The gender employment gap varied significantly across EU Member States. The highest gaps were recorded in Malta (22 pp) and Greece (21 pp), while the lowest gap was observed in Lithuania (2 pp).

Eurostat notes that in all EU countries, women’s labour participation is lower than men’s. Women in employment tend to work fewer hours, work in lower-paying sectors, and occupy lower-ranking positions than men, resulting in considerable gender pay and earnings gaps. These differences are to some extent due to deep-rooted traditional gender roles.

“Increasing women’s participation in the labour-force and raising their employment rate are paramount to meeting the Europe 2020 headline target for 75% of the population aged 20-64 to be employed”.

RECOVERY REQUIRES EQUALITY

“These can provide a boost to economic growth and mitigate the social and public finance risks related to population ageing. Continuous efforts are also needed to tackle gender gaps and move towards a dual model where both men and woman can be earners and carers”, Eurostat says.

The gender gap in part-time work remains high, Eurostat notes. “As it is most often women who carry the bulk of caring responsibilities, they tend to reduce their working hours. One third (31.4%) of women in employment in the EU worked on a part-time basis in 2016, a much higher proportion than the corresponding share for men (8.2%).”

“High gender pay gaps contribute later on to high pension gaps for women in several Member States due to lower pension contributions. This is especially the case in Romania, Cyprus, Germany, the Netherlands and Austria. This contributes to putting women at higher risk of poverty or social exclusion in old age.”

EIGE says that during the first wave of the pandemic last year, employment for women reduced by 2.2 million across the EU. Women working in retail, accommodation, residential care, domestic work and clothing manufacturing suffered heavy job losses. They make up the bulk of the workforce in these sectors, and 40% of all jobs lost by women during the crisis were in these professions.

Employment gap in percentage points men/women 2020. Source Eurostat

European employment gap in EuropeEuropean employment gap

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