Bulgaria Has Third Largest Potential Additional Labour Force in EU

Almost 10 million part-time workers in the European Union, of whom two-thirds were women, would have preferred to work more in 2014, according to a labour force survey conducted by Eurostat.

Among the 44.1 million persons in the EU working part-time last year, 9.8 million were underemployed, meaning they wished to work more hours and were available to do so, the bloc's statistical office said in a statement.

The number of underemployed corresponds to 4.5% of total employment in the EU in 2014.

Alongside the economically active population, 11.6 million economically inactive persons aged 15-74 in the EU had in 2014 a certain attachment to the labour market and could be considered as a potential additional labour force, equivalent to 4.8% of the EU's total labour force, Eurostat said.

Among them, 9.5 million were available to work but not seeking, such as discouraged job seekers, and 2.2 million seeking work but not immediately available, for example students seeking a job to start after graduation.

Fifty-seven percent of this almost 12 million total potential additional labour force in the EU in 2014 were also women.

The potential additional labour force also varied significantly between member states, with Italy showing the largest proportion (equivalent to 13.6% of the labour force), ahead of Croatia (9.6%), Bulgaria (7.6%) and Finland (7.4%).

"It should be noted that in every EU Member State, the potential labour force consisted mainly of persons available to work but not seeking," Eurostat said.