ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Among the 42 million part-time workers in the EU 27 in 2011, 8.6 million would like to work more hours, were available to do so and can therefore be considered to be underemployed. That's according to the latest Labour Force Survey from Eurostat.

This 8.6 million accounted for 20.5 per cent of part-time workers and four per cent of total employment. These figures are very similar to those in 2010.The largest proportions of people wishing to work more hours and available to do so among part-time workers were found in Greece (58 per cent), Latvia (57 per cent), Spain (49 per cent) and Cyprus (42 per cent)- member states where the proportion of employed people working part-time are relatively low.

On the other hand, the smallest proportion was found in the Netherlands and Belgium (both three per cent), where part-time working is common, followed by the Czech Republic (10 per cent) and Luxembourg (nine per cent).