(22 April 2013) – Since the start of the economic crisis the proportion of part-time workers wishing to work more hours and available to do so has grown steadily, from 18.5% in 2008 to 20.5% in 2011 and 21.4% in 2012.
Among the 43 million part-time workers in the EU27 in 2012, 9.2 million wished to work more hours, were available to do so and can therefore be considered to be underemployed.
In 2012, the largest proportions of people wishing to work more hours and available to do so among part-time workers were found in Member States where the share of employed persons working part-time is relatively low: Greece (66%), Spain (55%), Latvia (53%) and Cyprus (50%).
On the other hand, the smallest proportion was found in the Netherlands (3%), where part-time working is the most common, followed by Estonia (8%) and the Czech Republic (10%).