Eurostat: EU, employment down by 0.7% in 2020. Lowest employment rates in Italy and Greece

The employment rate for workers aged 20 to 64 dropped to 72.4%, down by 0.7 percentage points (pp), in comparison to 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly contributed to this decline. There is, however, a significant gap between men and women. Indeed, the employment rate in 2020 stood at 78.1% for men (down from 79.0% in 2019) and at 66.8% for women (down from 67.3% the previous year). The gender employment gap, however, decreased to 11.3 pp, in comparison to 11.7 pp in 2019. At the national level, employment increased in three countries: Malta (+0.6, employment rate at 77.4%), Poland (+0.6, employment rate at 73.6%) and Croatia (+0.2, employment rate at 66.9%). The highest decreases in the employment rate were observed in Spain (-2,3%), Ireland (-1,7%) and Bulgaria (-1,6%). Sweden had the highest employment rate at 80.8%. At the bottom of the list were Italy (62.6%) and Greece (61.1%) with the lowest employment rate.
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