The importance of part-time employment is rising across the whole Europe. In Germany, for example, the amount of part-time employees is higher than the EU average. That required major structural changes described in a study by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) titled Ongoing Change in the Structure of Part-Time Employment, published in mid-2011.
Although part-time employment relates primarily to unskilled labor, the number of part-time positions for medium and highly skilled workers in Germany rises as well. The part-time employment extends to more and more professions. Significant increase was reported also in the number of men who work part-time. Women, however, still predominate.
While women choose the part-time positions mainly because of their families, the main motives of men involves training and lack of full-time jobs. Although the situation in unemployment has improved in recent years, the number of Germans who take the part-time jobs only as an emergency solution remains at a significant number of 2 million.
The entire study is available for download on the DWI website here.
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