ABSTRACT
Malta an employment rate of 55.7 percent (data for Liechtenstein missing). From the graph it also appears that among the EU member states Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Austria, the United Kingdom, Cyprus and Finland have already met the Lisbon target for total employment, with Germany, Estonia and Ireland close behind. At the lower end of the ranking are Hungary, Poland and Malta. Figure 9.2 gives the employment rate for women, indicating on the one hand the decline of the breadwinner model in quite a few European member states while on the other hand illustrating the rather diverse position of women in the European labor markets. Again, the highest-ranking country is Iceland, with a female employment rate of almost 81 percent, whereas in Malta the female employment rate is just below 37 percent (data for Liechtenstein missing). Figure 9.2 also indicates that 15 EU member states (and Iceland and Norway) have already met or exceeded the Lisbon target of 60 percent female employment. At the other end of the ranking it appears that Greece, Italy and Malta are still far from the Lisbon target, as female employment rates are under 50 percent. The difference between total and female employment rates indicate that throughout Europe there is still a large gap between the employment rates of men and women, with women falling significantly behind. Figure 9.3 ranks all the countries in this respect. The highest employment gender gaps are found in the Southern part of Europe: Malta, Greece, Italy, Spain and Cyprus. Ireland and Luxembourg also score rather unfavorably in this respect. Relatively small
Figure 9.1 Total employment rate 2007 (source: Indicators for monitoring the Employment Guidelines 2008 Compendium (14/03/2008); for Iceland and Norway: Eurostat Employment Statistics 2006).
