Half in Italy, one in forty in the Netherlands
In 2025, 51.0% of part-time workers aged 20 to 64 in Italy said they worked part time because they could not find a full-time job; in the Netherlands, 2.4%. Across the European Union the share was 18.4%. The figures come from Eurostat’s Labour Force Survey tables, updated on 10 September 2026.
The Netherlands has the lowest share of any member state, and Italy the second highest. Romania is highest, at 62.6%, but part-time work there is rare: 2.3% of people in employment. Spain (46.6%) and Greece (39.2%) come after Italy; Germany is at 5.4%.
Men who work part time are more likely than women to give that reason: in Italy 66.1% of men and 46.6% of women, in the Netherlands 3.9% and 2.0%.
| Member state | Could not find full-time work, % of part-timers | Part time, % of workers | Eurostat flag |
|---|---|---|---|
| European Union | 18.4% | 17.0% | |
| Romania | 62.6% | 2.3% | |
| Italy | 51.0% | 15.3% | |
| Spain | 46.6% | 13.1% | part-time definition differs |
| Greece | 39.2% | 5.1% | |
| Bulgaria | 38.2% | 1.7% | |
| Cyprus | 36.3% | 7.3% | |
| Portugal | 35.8% | 6.8% | |
| Finland | 31.1% | 15.6% | |
| Latvia | 27.5% | 7.5% | |
| Croatia | 23.3% | 2.9% | |
| Sweden | 23.1% | 17.5% | |
| France | 21.3% | 16.7% | part-time definition differs |
| Belgium | 19.7% | 24.3% | |
| Estonia | 19.3% | 12.8% | |
| Lithuania | 18.8% | 5.4% | |
| Czechia | 17.1% | 7.8% | |
| Hungary | 16.3% | 4.6% | |
| Slovakia | 12.6% | 4.2% | |
| Poland | 10.7% | 6.0% | |
| Luxembourg | 10.4% | 17.8% | low reliability |
| Ireland | 9.6% | 17.1% | |
| Austria | 7.0% | 30.2% | |
| Denmark | 6.6% | 23.1% | |
| Slovenia | 6.1% | 7.8% | low reliability |
| Germany | 5.4% | 29.2% | |
| Malta | 5.2% | 9.1% | low reliability |
| Netherlands | 2.4% | 38.9% |
What the figure counts
The figure is a share of part-time workers, not of all workers. It takes everyone aged 20 to 64 whose main job is part time and records the main reason they give. Not being able to find a full-time job is one of seven answers.
The other answers carry the rest. In the Netherlands the most common is looking after children or adults with disabilities (37.3%), then education or training (18.7%). In Italy the lack of a full-time job is followed by other family reasons (17.1%), other personal reasons (12.4%) and care (11.7%).
Part time does not mean the same thing everywhere. In most countries it is the respondent’s own description of the job; in the Netherlands it means usually working fewer than 35 hours a week. Spain’s and France’s part-time shares carry Eurostat’s flag for a definition that differs.
- THE GROUP: people aged 20 to 64 whose main job is part time. Not all workers: they are 15.3% of people in employment in Italy and 38.9% in the Netherlands.
- THE ANSWER: the main reason they give for working part time. Being unable to find a full-time job is one of seven; the others are looking after children or adults with disabilities, other family reasons, other personal reasons, education or training, their own illness or disability, and other reasons.
- THE DEFINITION: in most countries part time is the respondent’s own description of the job. In the Netherlands it means usually working fewer than 35 hours a week.
So 51.0% does not say that half of Italy’s workers are stuck in part-time jobs: it says that of the people working part time, about half gave the lack of a full-time job as their main reason.
One group of workers, one answer, and one definition that differs, and a reading that forgets any of them says what the source does not.
The most part-timers, the fewest for want of a job
The Netherlands has the EU’s highest share of part-time work: 38.9% of people in employment, against 15.3% in Italy and 17.0% across the EU. Austria (30.2%) and Germany (29.2%) come next, and in both the involuntary share is low too: 7.0% and 5.4%.
Put the two figures together and the order reverses. By the desk’s arithmetic, people working part time because they could not find a full-time job are about eight in every hundred workers in Italy and about one in a hundred in the Netherlands, though the Netherlands has two and a half times Italy’s share of part-time work.
Since 2021
Italy’s share has fallen every year since 2021, from 62.8% to 51.0%. The Netherlands went from 4.2% to 2.4%, and the EU from 24.0% to 18.4%.
Over the same years Italy’s part-time share fell too, from 18.2% to 15.3% of people in employment, while the Netherlands stayed at about two in five: 39.0% in 2021, 38.9% in 2025.
The series starts in 2021 on purpose. That year the survey moved to a new EU regulation, and Eurostat marks a break in the series for Italy, the Netherlands and the EU; earlier values are not compared here.
| Year | Italy | Netherlands | EU |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 62.8% | 4.2% | 24.0% |
| 2022 | 57.8% | 3.1% | 21.6% |
| 2023 | 54.9% | 2.3% | 20.1% |
| 2024 | 51.3% | 2.5% | 19.0% |
| 2025 | 51.0% | 2.4% | 18.4% |
What these figures do not say
They do not say why. No labour law, childcare system or economic condition is measured here, in Italy, the Netherlands or anywhere else.
They do not say who would take more hours now: Eurostat measures that separately, as underemployment. They do not say that the others work part time by choice, only which other reason they gave, and they say nothing about pay or how many hours anyone works.
They do not say what comes next. These are annual survey figures, and none of this is a forecast.
