14508/09 ADD 1 PL/vk 1 DG G COUNCIL OF THE ... - Europa

While women’s total employment rates are lower than men’s in almost all EU countries, the
differences decrease with increasing levels of education. The EU-average employment rates of
women with tertiary education (25-39 years) are 84 %, of women with secondary education 72 %
and of women with only basic schooling 51 % (see figure 4.2.4). The corresponding figures for
women of 40-64 years are 80, 65 and 43 %, i.e. the employment rate is somewhat lower for the
older than for the younger women. While this difference is also observed for men, the gap is
smaller: an employment rate of 92 % for those with tertiary education aged 25-39 compared with
80 % of those with only basic schooling, and for those aged 40-64, 86 % and 66 % respectively.
Nevertheless, there remains a gap in employment rates between women and men with the same
educational background, although it is much narrower among those with tertiary education than
among those with only basic schooling. In 2006, the gap amounted to 8 percentage points among
25-39-year olds in the EU as a whole, ranging from 22 percentage points in the Czech Republic, 19
in Hungary, 17 in Slovakia, 2 in Lithuania to 1 percentage point in Romania (Eurostat, EU-Labour
Force Survey). In countries where the employment gap is wide, the employment rate of the women
in this group is relatively low, which means that valuable human capital is not being used.
The gender employment gap for persons with tertiary education is slightly narrower in the EU for
those aged 40-64 than the average for those aged 25-39, in part reflecting the fact that the older age
group have fewer care responsibilities. In the EU as a whole, the employment rate of women with
tertiary education aged 40-64 was around 6 percentage points lower than for men. The variation
between countries is slightly wider in this group; from -1 percentage point in Sweden and Finland to
24 percentage points in Malta.
Low-educated women’s employment rates differ widely among the EU-countries. In Portugal the
rate of employment for women in the 25-39 age group is 73 %, while in Slovakia it is 21 %; and
among women of 40-64 years it varies between 63 % in the UK to 17 % in Malta. The pattern is the
same for women with secondary education, but at a higher level of employment and with smaller
differences between women and men and between women in different age groups.
Women with only basic schooling are far more likely than men to be outside the labour market.
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