One in four works part-time

Who works part-time?

Six hundred thousand people were working part-time in the fourth quarter of 2002 according to the Labour Force Survey (LFS). This amounted to 26.5 per cent of the total working population. The percentage in part-time employment has been relatively stable since the mid 1980s, after an increase beginning in 1970. Part-time employment is much more common for women than for men. Four out of ten women in employment worked part-time, compared to only 1 in 10 men in employment. However, part-time work became more widespread for men in the 1990s and this applied to all age groups from 30 years and over. Overall, it thus seems that the gap between women and mens part-time employment practices is becoming smaller to some extent, although the gap is still wide.

Those in part-time employment are part of an extremely composite group. We have split the part-time workforce into some main groups, which for many indicates the reason behind them working part-time.

Main activity

The part-time workforce mainly consists of two groups as regards main activity. Seven out of ten part-time workers fall under the group that forms part of the working community. They give participation in working life as their main activity. The other large group of part-time workers consists of those who state that they are primarily in education; this applies to 2 out of 10. The remainder are spread among the groups of those who consider themselves to be retired, handicapped or homemakers.

The fact that part-time work is a more widespread adaptation to the labour market for women than men, is reflected in that women in part-time employment perceive themselves to be part of the working community to a far greater degree than men. On the other hand, a high percentage of men in part-time employment state education as their main activity, compared to women. It can therefore appear that men who work part-time do so in addition to another activity, whilst women working part-time have this as their main activity.

In line with this, women in part-time employment generally have longer agreed working hours than men. With regard to those who perceive themselves to be part of the working community, the working hours are considerably longer than for other groups in the part-time workforce. The other groups are clearly more marginal in relation to the labour market, with a large proportion of persons with less than 10 working hours per week.

Children

The LFS provides figures showing the breakdown of children for women but not for men. Caring for children may be one of the reasons that women choose part-time work. This can be useful information in terms of the background to choosing part-time rather than full-time work, particularly with regard to women who state labour force participation as their most important task.

The highest percentage of part-time workers is in the group of women with children aged 3-6 years; 52 per cent. Next is the group of women with children aged 7-10 years, which is 47 per cent. Table 16 shows that the proportion of women in part-time employment (who perceive themselves to be part of the working community) with children below 16 years, is around 10 per cent higher than in the total female workforce, i.e. 51 per cent. This could indicate that women with children use part-time work as a way of adapting to working life, and regard themselves as part of the working community during this period. The children of these women are quite evenly distributed, with a peak in the 3-6 age group of 16 per cent. With regard to women in employment who are mainly homemakers, the percentage with children younger than 16 is high at 62 per cent. Almost a third (29 per cent) of this group of women have children in the 0-2 age group.

Age and education

The breakdown we have done according to main activity is partly linked to life cycle stages. Not surprisingly, most of those in part-time employment who gave education as their most important activity are in the 16-19 age group. With regard to part-time workers with impaired health, the majority of these are over 50, and the proportion below 50 in this group is lower for women than for men. Homemakers in part-time employment peak in the 30-39 age group, but are otherwise relatively evenly distributed according to age.

The largest group of part-time workers, those who regard themselves as part of the working community, are distributed with around 25 per cent in each of the three age groups 30-39, 40-49 and 50-59. When men and women are considered separately, the trend is that women in particular are concentrated in these middle age groups. Men are distributed more evenly throughout all age groups but with a peak in the 50-59 age group.

The percentage of those in part-time employment falls as the level of education increases. With regard to those in employment who have only completed primary education, the proportion of part-time workers was 41 per cent, whilst among those with a college or university education was 21 per cent. The difference between women and mens part-time practices becomes less as the level of education increases. With regard to those in employment with the lowest level of education, 63 per cent were women who worked part-time compared to 22 per cent men, i.e. a difference of 41 percentage points. For those with a college or university education, the proportion of women in part-time employment was 32 per cent, with men at 9 per cent, i.e. a difference of 23 percentage points.

Working time arrangements

It is more common for those in part-time employment than others to have working time arrangements that entail working outside normal daytime hours. With regard to those in part-time employment in the second quarter of 2002, 4 out of 10 had working time arrangements that regularly entailed working weekends or evenings/nights. Correspondingly, 3 out of 10 of the total workforce had such a working time arrangement. It is rota work in particular that contributes to these differences, and the rota work element is particularly high among females in part-time employment.

Of those employed part-time who are primarily in education, it is not surprising that almost half regularly work outside normal daytime hours. LFS only includes questions relating to working time arrangements for the second quarter, so consequently we only have figures for that quarter.

Comparisons with other European countries

Norway has a high percentage of part-time workers compared to other European countries. However, the agreed working hours of those in part-time employment in Norway are higher than the average for other European countries.

The figures for EU and EFTA countries are based on data supplied to the EUs statistics office, Eurostat. Eurostat has requested data where the definition of full-time/part-time is based on the interviewees own perception of whether they work full-time or part-time. This definition is comparable to the definition used in the Norwegian LFS, and the figures from Norway are supplied on this basis. We have not examined how other countries have made the transition from the national definition to the EU definition. When comparing different countries part-time employment practices, what is considered normal full-time in the relevant countries is used as a starting point. Weekly working hours that are full-time in one country may be part-time in another.

The proportion of those in part-time employment in the EU and EFTA countries is 18 per cent, compared to 26 per cent in Norway. Only the Netherlands, Switzerland and Iceland have a higher percentage of part-time workers than Norway. Greece, Spain and Italy have the lowest proportion of part-time workers, with well below 10 per cent. Eleven per cent of men in employment in Norway work part-time, and the corresponding figure for women is 44 per cent. The average for the EU and EFTA countries is 7 per cent and 34 per cent respectively. The Nordic countries in addition to the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom have the highest percentage of men in part-time employment.

The average agreed working hours for persons in part-time employment in Norway is relatively high at 22.2 hours, compared to the average for the EU and EFTA countries, which is 19.6 hours. With regard to women in part-time employment, the weekly working hours are longest in Sweden, with 23.2 hours, and shortest in Germany with 17.9 hours.

Whilst the working hours for the part-time workforce in Norway are long, the working hours for full-time are short compared to other countries. The average weekly working hours in Norway is 39.2 for full-time work, compared to 41.4 hours in the EU and EFTA. This means that the working hours of those in part-time employment in Norway are closer to full-time than most other European countries. This trend applies to both men and women. On average, the working hours for women in part-time employment are longer than for men, both in Norway and the EU and EFTA as a whole. Correspondingly, the working hours for women in full-time employment are shorter than for men.