Eurostat Stat of the Week - Part-Time Employment Rates

The European Employment Strategy (EES) was launched at the Luxembourg Jobs Summit in November 1997 and was evaluated in 2002, when it was revamped to align employment strategy more closely to the Lisbon objectives. The European Union has set itself an ambitious target of a 70% total employment rate by 2010, while the Stockholm Council in the spring of 2001 subsequently added an employment rate target for persons aged between 55 and 64 years of 50%.

Flexible working conditions may stimulate employment and activity rates, for example, the possibility to work on a part-time basis. In the Labour Force Survey, the distinction between full-time and part-time employment is left to the respondent, since working hours differ from one Member State to the next, and from one branch of activity to the other.

This "stat of the week" forms part of the Eurostat series of the same name.