Progress
Fair progress but acceleration needed
Fair progress but acceleration needed

Desired direction: In the Employment Rate series, the European target is to reach 78% by 2030. In the Gender Gap series, the goal is to reduce the difference to a maximum of 5.8 percentage points in the same year.

Sub-categories

Choose categories from the dropdowns below to see different breakdowns of the data. Some will not be available until a higher level is chosen.

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Download source data for disaggregations (.csv)

Headline data

Population occupancy rate (EU indicator sdg_08_30)
Year Value Units Series GeoCode
2011 67.7 % Employment rate
2020 70.9 % Employment rate
2010 68.3 % Employment rate
2017 70.0 % Employment rate
2022 74.0 % Employment rate
2012 66.3 % Employment rate
2016 68.9 % Employment rate
2013 66.0 % Employment rate
2019 72.6 % Employment rate
2018 72.0 % Employment rate
2021 72.2 % Employment rate
2015 67.6 % Employment rate
2023 74.6 % Employment rate
2014 66.4 % Employment rate
2023 6.8 Percentage points Gender gap in employment
2019 8.3 Percentage points Gender gap in employment
2021 6.3 Percentage points Gender gap in employment
2017 8.0 Percentage points Gender gap in employment
2013 8.4 Percentage points Gender gap in employment
2015 7.7 Percentage points Gender gap in employment
2018 8.8 Percentage points Gender gap in employment
2014 7.6 Percentage points Gender gap in employment
2020 6.8 Percentage points Gender gap in employment
2011 10.8 Percentage points Gender gap in employment
2012 8.8 Percentage points Gender gap in employment
2016 7.7 Percentage points Gender gap in employment
2010 13.7 Percentage points Gender gap in employment
2022 7.2 Percentage points Gender gap in employment

Geographical Area:

Unit of Measurement:

Footnote:

Methodological sheet of the indicator available for the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country.

Available indicator

Population occupancy rate (EU indicator sdg_08_30)
Target

8.5 By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value
Goal

8- Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
Definition

Proportion of people aged 20-64 who are employed, by age group, and gender employment gap.

An employed person is someone who, during a reference week, worked at least one hour for pay or benefit, or who did not work but had a job from which they were temporarily absent.
Theoretical formula

Employment rate

\[TA^{t} = \frac{PO^{t}}{P^{t}}\]

where:

$PO^{t} =$ employed population in year $t$

$P^{t} =$ population in year $t$


Gender gap in employment:

\[BGE^{t} ={TA_{men}^{t} - TA_{women}^{t}}\]

where:

$TA_{men}^{t} =$ employment rate of men in year $t$

$TA_{women}^{t} =$ employment rate of women in year $t$
Available disaggregations

Sex

Type of contract

Province

County

Municipality
Frequency

Annual
Data last updated 2025/06/18
Metadata last updated 2025/06/20

This section provides more information about the United Nations indicator or the European Union Sustainable Development Indicator, such as its rationale, international results, metadata, and other relevant statistics.

Rationale

Paid employment is crucial for ensuring sufficient living standards and it provides the necessary foundation for people to achieve their personal goals and aspirations. Moreover, employment contributes to economic performance, quality of life and social inclusion, making it a cornerstone of socioeconomic development and well-being.

The European Pillar of Social Rights, jointly proclaimed by the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council in 2017, sets out 20 key principles and rights essential for fair and well-functioning labour markets and social protection systems. The European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, adopted in 2021, turns the Principles into concrete actions to benefit citizens. It also proposes an ambitious employment target of 78 % of the population aged 20 to 64 for the EU to reach by 2030. In support of this, the Action Plan proposes to halve the gender employment gap by 2030 compared with 2019 and to decrease the rate of young people neither in employment nor in education or training (NEET) aged 15 to 29 to 9 % by 2030.

Source: Eurostat
Comparability between the available indicator and the UN indicator

The available indicator is comparable with the European indicator Employment rate by sex (sdg_08_30)”
International results

Employment rate by sex (sdg_08_30) Eurostat
Link to UN metadata

Metadata Eurostat sdg_08_30

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