Occupational safety and health in Europe - state and trends 2023 
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 110 
Table 30: Development of male and female workforce in the EU27 between 2005 and 2019299  
 
Although female employment has grown faster than the men’s rate, the employment rate for men is still 
11% higher. Due to the much higher rate of part -time work — women 30%, men 9% 300 — the gender 
gap concerning participation in the labour market is higher when transforming the working time into ‘full-
time equivalents’ (FTE). EIGE calculated a difference of 16%: ‘The EU average FTE employment rate 
is 41% for women, compared to 57% for men.’ 301,302 
The average age of the workforce has drastically changed during the last 17 years. In 2005, the age 
class between 55 and 64 years represented 11.1% of all employed persons, and in 2019 already 18.4% 
of the workforce — a growth of 16 million employed persons. At the same time,  the share of the age 
class between 15 and 39 years decreased from 49.6% to 41.6% , or 8.5 million . Already 5. 1 million 
employed persons are older than 65 years, making up a share of 2.6% of the workforce.303 
 
Table 31: Average age of the EU27 workforce304