Employment and labour markets
European Jobs Monitor 2021: Gender gaps and the employment structure
Published:
14 December 2021
Research report
Abstract
One of the most striking developments of the last half-century has been the huge rise in the labour market participation of women. Two out of every three net new jobs created over the last two decades in the EU were taken by women. At the same time, sharply rising employment rates among older workers due to population ageing and policy changes have increased the share of older workers in the labour market. This report examines the impacts of the changing contours of labour supply on the employment structure over the last quarter-century in Europe (1995–2019). The primary focus is on gender, with a secondary focus on ageing. Among the main findings are that employment shares in gender-balanced jobs have declined despite the rising female share of employment and that gender pay gaps are highest in well-paid jobs.
Key findings
Two out of three net new jobs in the EU over the last two decades have been taken up by women and this increase has been strongest among 30 to 49-year-olds and older women aged 50+. While the result has been a narrowing of the gender employment gap, it still persists in nearly every EU Member State.
The rise in women’s employment has had the greatest impact on the top and the bottom of the wage distribution leading to low-paying jobs, formerly dominated by men, becoming dominated by women. The first employment impacts of COVID-19 overall have been most sharply felt by low-paid workers, especially low-paid women.
The state’s role as an employer has been crucial in boosting women’s employment. Women have benefited more than men from employment growth in well-paying jobs, with three predominantly state-paid sectors – public administration, health and education – accounting for the majority of recent employment growth in well-paid jobs among women.
Women’s employment will have to grow at a rate at least three times faster than that of men up to the end of the decade to meet the gender and employment targets set out in the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan. Boosting women’s employment must remain a priority for policymakers given that the gender employment gap has scarcely changed since 2014.
The persistence of gender job segregation is a strong signal that more dynamic education and training systems and other incentives will be required to encourage young men and women (15–29 years) to engage in occupations dominated by the other gender.
The report contains the following lists of tables and figures.
List of tables
Table 1: Women’s employment share by occupation in the EU as a whole, 1998 and 2019 (%)
Table 2: Women’s employment share by broad sector in the EU (%) and the change over time (pps), 1998 and 2019
Table 3: Duncan dissimilarity index values by Member State, 1998–2007 and 2011–2019
Table 4: Ratios of dissimilarity indices by country for specific worker characteristics, 2019
Table 5: Change in women’s share of employment in large-employing jobs in the EU, 1998–2019
Table 6: Difference between education- and wage-based rankings by country and gender composition of jobs
Table 7: A taxonomy of tasks according to the content of work, methods and tools
Table A1: Detailed Blinder Oaxaca decomposition of the gender pay gap, across job wage quintiles and EU countries, 2014
List of figures
Figure 1: Population–occupation pyramids for six European countries, 1995 (thousands)
Figure 2: Overall change in the working-age population between 1995 and 2019 by nationality and employment status for six European countries (%)
Figure 3: Gender gaps in labour market participation, low-paying jobs and high-paying jobs by age group for six European countries, 1995 (pps)
Figure 4: Inactivity rates by gender–age groups for six European countries, 1995 and 2019 (%)
Figure 5: Change in the gender–age composition of the labour market for six European countries, 1995 and 2019 (%)
Figure 6: Change in population–occupation pyramids between 1995 and 2019 for six European countries (thousands)
Figure 7: Change in the demographic composition of the occupational terciles between 1995 and 2019 (%)
Figure 8: Population–occupation pyramids for six European countries, 2019 (thousands)
Figure 9: Change in the share of EU employment by gender between 1998 and 2019 in predominantly state-funded sectors and in all other sectors (pps)
Figure 10: Employment share in the EU by gender concentration category, 1998 and 2019 (%)
Figure 11: Employment shifts from 1998 to 2019 in the EU by gender and by gender concentration category (pps)
Figure 12: Part-time employment share in the EU by gender and gender concentration category, 2019 (thousands and %)
Figure 13: Duncan dissimilarity index of employment in the EU by job and gender, 1998–2019
Figure 14: Country range of women’s share of employment in large-employing jobs, 2019
Figure 15: Employment shifts in the EU by gender and job–wage quintile, 1998–2019 (%)
Figure 16: Mean wage and education rankings in the EU27 by gender composition of jobs, 2019
Figure 17: Employment distribution in the EU27 by gender and job–wage quintile, 2019 (thousands)
Figure 18: Employment change between 2011 and 2019 in the EU by job–wage quintile, gender and country (thousands)
Figure 19: Employment change in the EU27 by job–wage quintile, gender and broad sector, 2011–2019 (thousands)
Figure 20: Employment shifts year on year in the EU27 by job–wage quintile and gender, Q2 and Q4 of 2019–2020 (thousands)
Figure 21: Year-on-year change in workers employed but not working (furloughed) in the EU27 by job–wage quintile and gender, Q2 and Q4 of 2019–2020 (thousands)
Figure 22: Physical task indicators by gender concentration category
Figure 23: Intellectual task indicators by gender concentration category
Figure 24: Social task indicators by gender concentration category
Figure 25: Methods of work task indicators by gender concentration category
Figure 26: Tools used at work by gender concentration category
Figure 27: Marginal effects of gender for task content indicators in different gender job categories
Figure 28: Marginal effect for gender on tools use at work in different gender categories
Figure 29 Gender pay gap in the EU, 2014 (%)
Figure 30: Gender pay gap (%) and average wage levels (euro/hour) across countries, 2014
Figure 31: Women’s employment rates and gender pay gap across countries, 2014 (%)
Figure 32: Women’s employment shares and gender pay gap across countries, 2014 (%)
Figure 33: Gender pay gap (%), women’s employment share (%) and men’s and women’s wage levels (ratio, see note) by sector in the EU, 2014
Figure 34: Share of employees (%) and wage levels (ratio, see note) in the EU by gender in selected occupations in the construction sector, 2014
Figure 35: Share of employees (%) and wage levels (ratio, see note) in the EU by gender in selected occupations in the financial sector, 2014
Figure 36: Gender pay gap at job level in the EU (%)
Figure 37: Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition of the gender pay gap: explained and unexplained, 2014
Figure 38: Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition of the gender pay gap in the EU and the five most populated countries: factors contributing to the explained part
Figure A1: Gender pay gap across job–wage quintiles, 2014 (%)
- Number of pages
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86
- Reference nº
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EF21009
- ISBN
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978-92-897-2239-1
- Catalogue nº
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TJ-AN-20-001-EN-N
- DOI
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10.2806/16416
- Permalink
Cite this publication
Eurofound and European Commission Joint Research Centre (2021), European Jobs Monitor 2021: Gender gaps and the employment structure, European Jobs Monitor series, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
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