Number of part-time employees in the EU 2002-2023

In 2023, there were approximately 35.4 million part-time workers in the European Union, an increase of around ten million when compared with 2002. During this timeframe, the number of part-time workers has steadily increased in almost every year, in contrast to the number of full-time workers in the EU, which declined considerably after the great recession in 2008. The years of 2021 and 2022, when the COVID-19 pandemic restricted employment opportunities within the EU, are the only years with declining numbers of part-time workers during this period.