Eurostat – the Statistics Office of the European Community – has published the “Community Inquiry on the workforce – main results 2005”, according to which the employment rate from the ages of 15 to 64 in 2005 was 63.8%, equivalent to 197.5 million workers, compared with 62,4% in 2000 and 63.3% in 2004. The highest percentages were registered in Denmark (75.9%), Holland (73.2%), Sweden (72.5%) and the UK (71.7%). At the opposite end of the spectrum are Poland (52.8%), Malta (53.9%), Hungary (56.9%), Italy (57.6%) and Slovakia (57,7%). Particularly significant are the following data: the disparity between male employment and female employment (40% in Malta, 28% in Greece, 25% in Italy and 24% in Spain – 4% in Finland and in Sweden, 5% in Estonia); the various incidence of temporary work (one wage-earner in three in Spain, one in four in Poland – less than 5% in Estonia, Ireland and Malta); and the fact that 18.3% of the unemployed are looking for their first job (with the peaks rising above 33% in Greece and Italy). Lastly, the rate of long-term unemployment (over 12 months) reaches a European average of 4.1% with a minimum of 1% in the UK and a maximum of 11.7% (curiously) in Denmark.
