text: 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 