The world of work is constantly evolving, and so are employee habits. Part-time employment rates fluctuate dramatically across Europe, so how do countries stack up?
While most employees work on a full-time schedule, part-time jobs are becoming more common as staff look for greater flexibility and a better work-life balance. Businesses may also be keen to hire part-time to limit costs and handle shifting workloads.
According to Eurostat, 17.1% of employed people in the EU worked part-time in 2024. The agency defines a part-time worker as someone whose usual working hours are lower than those of a comparable full-time worker in their main job.
The OECD notes that this usually means working fewer than 30 hours per week, and this applies to both employees and the self-employed.
Rates across Europe
Across 33 European countries, the part-time employment rate ranges from 1.5% in Bulgaria to 40.5% in Switzerland, closely followed by the Netherlands at 38.9%
The rate is also very high in Austria and Germany, where roughly three in ten people work part-time.
At the other end of the ranking, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Croatia, Slovakia, and Hungary all see rates below 5%.
The figures paint a regional pattern across Europe, showing that part-time work is generally much less common in the Balkans and Eastern Europe than in Western and Northern Europe.
Women, young people, and older workers
“Women, young people, older workers, and those with reduced work capacity are more likely to prefer part-time employment. Therefore, countries where these groups have high employment rates tend to exhibit higher levels of part-time work,” Rasa Mieziene and Sandra Krutuliene from Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences told Euronews Business.
For example, they explained that in 2024, the Netherlands had the highest employment rate of women in the EU, 12.7 percentage points above the EU average. Youth employment (15–24) in the Netherlands was more than 40 points higher, and the employment rate of older workers (60–64) was over 15 points higher.
“All of these indicators were well above the EU-27 averages. By contrast, in countries where these groups are less active in the labour market, part-time employment levels tend to be lower,” they said.
For example, in Bulgaria, the youth employment rate was less than half of the EU average.
“Part-time jobs are also more common in service-oriented sectors — such as retail, health, education, and hospitality — where staffing needs vary throughout the day or week,” Mieziene and Krutuliene said.
Services vs. manufacturing
The researchers also noted that employers use part-time contracts to achieve staffing flexibility, reduce labour costs, and adapt to fluctuating demand. For instance, mini-jobs constitute a significant segment of the German labour market and generate a large number of part-time positions.
According to 2023 ILO statistics, employment in the services sector accounted for over 80% of total employment in Sweden, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, whereas it was significantly lower in South Eastern European countries (Bulgaria, Romania) or Central European countries (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary).
“Most Eastern European economies are more manufacturing-oriented, where full-time jobs are the norm,” they added.
Wage level is another driver. Mieziene and Krutuliene pointed out that in higher-wage economies, part-time work can still provide adequate income, while in lower-wage economies, it may not be financially viable — reducing both worker interest and employer offerings.
“This helps explain why part-time employment remains relatively low in many Eastern European countries,” they said.
Dramatic gender gap
There is also a strong gender pattern. Part-time employment is much higher among women than men, totalling 27.8% compared to 7.7%.
In Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Austria, more than half of women in employment work part-time. Germany is also very close to that level.
Romania is the only exception where the rate is slightly higher among men, and in Bulgaria there is no gap.
If the part-time employment rate is low, the gender gap is smaller in absolute numbers but can still be large in relative terms.
“A key reason (for the gap) is historical differences in both the position of women in the labour market and more general labour market developments,” Prof Mara Yerkes from Utrecht University told Euronews Business.
She noted that in the Netherlands, the historical development of part-time work was initially driven by the need for more workers during labour shortages in the 1960s. In 1957, the Netherlands repealed its 'marriage bar' law that required women to leave certain jobs upon marrying.
“Slowly, part-time work became viewed as a way for women to combine care tasks with paid work — as they were — and generally still are — viewed as the person responsible for most care and household tasks,” she said.
Mara Yerkes stated that in various countries, part-time work was solidified by other labour market developments, for example the desire for a collective reduction of working hours in exchange for moderation in wage growth in the early 1980s. As a result, part-time jobs have become very common, accepted and protected, leading to their ongoing popularity, particularly among women.
Stan De Spiegelaere of Ghent University also identifies several factors influencing part-time employment rates. These include shifting cultural norms surrounding women’s work and stagnant wages that make full-time employment insufficient as a ‘family wage', forcing people to find side jobs. He additionally points to inadequate infrastructure that limits mothers’ ability to work full-time, as well as the increasing flexibilisation of labour regulations in countries such as Germany.
