Employment rates
The EU-28’s economically active population (also called the labour force) was composed of 242.2 million persons aged 15–74 in 2012, among which 216.9 million were employed and 25.3 million were unemployed (in search of work and available to work).
To meet the Europe 2020 employment rate target an average increase of 0.8 points per annum will be needed
The indicator employment rate is based on the ratio of employed persons to the population of a specific age group. Having peaked at 70.3 % in 2008, the effects of the financial and economic crisis resulted in the EU-28’s employment rate (for those aged 20–64) falling to 68.3 % by 2012. As such, to achieve the Europe 2020 employment rate target of 75 % by 2020, the EU-28 employment rate will need to grow, on average, by 0.8 percentage points per annum.
Low fertility rates and an ageing population (see Chapter 1 for more details) will probably result in the EU-28’s working-age population shrinking in the coming years, notwithstanding a net inflow of migrants. The falling number of persons of working-age may help the EU’s employment rate move towards the 75 % target.
Map4.1 presents the distribution of employment rates for the 20–64 age group for NUTS 2 regions, with the two darkest shades indicating those regions that already exceeded the overall Europe 2020 target of 75 %. In 2012, a total of 76 out of the 272 NUTS 2 regions in the EU for which data are available reported an employment rate that was 75.0 % or higher. At the other end of the range, there were 80 regions where employment rates were at least 10.0 percentage points lower than the 75 % Europe 2020 target; among these were 20 regions where the employment rate was at least 20.0 percentage points lower.
Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Eurostat regional yearbook 2014 via Publication.
Job Market Monitor 
Discussion
No comments yet.