In 2011 the picture of the EU labour market was still
being determined by the economic and financial crisis,
although the negative trend of recent years came to a
halt. The EU employment rate1
for those persons of
working age (15-64) was up slightly by 0.1 p.p. in 2011
to 64.3 % (see Figure 1). It was unchanged at 70.1 %
for men and rose to 58.5 % (+0.3 p.p.) for women.
This publication presents the main results of the EU
Labour Force Survey for the year 2011.
The employment rate for the population aged 15-64 was
higher than the EU average in twelve EU Member States.
The highest rates were recorded by the Netherlands
(74.9 %), Sweden (74.1 %), Denmark (73.1 %), Germany
(72.5 %) and Austria (72.1 %). However, there were ten
Member States that did not reach 60 %. The lowest
employment rates were observed in Greece (55.6 %),
Hungary (55.8 %), Italy (56.9 %), Malta (57.6 %) and
Spain (57.7 %).
The employment rates for the participating EFTA
countries were above 75 %, with Switzerland and Iceland
recording 79.3 % and 78.5 % respectively in 2011.
Compared with 2010, the employment rate rose in
fourteen Member States. The highest increases were
recorded in Estonia (+4.1 percentage points), Lithuania
(+2.9 p.p.), Latvia (+2.5 p.p.), Malta (+1.5 p.p.), Sweden
and Germany (+1.4 p.p.). On the other hand, the
employment rate fell in twelve Member States, notably in
Greece (-4.0 p.p.), Slovenia (-1.8 p.p.) and Cyprus (-1.6
p.p.).
In the context of the Europe 2020 strategy2
, the
employment rate for the narrower age group of 20 to 64
year-olds is used as one of the headline indicators. The
EU employment rate for persons within this age class
remained stable at 68.6 % from 2010 to 2011, but was
still well below the target rate of 75 %. The EU
employment rate for the 20-64 age group was 75.0 % for
men and 62.3 % for women.