In 2023, 26.0% of employees in Belgium worked part-time, a figure that remained almost stable compared to the previous year. Women especially work part-time: 40.2% of female employees work part-time, compared to 12.1% of male employees. For both men and women, four-fifths time employment is the most popular part-time working arrangement.
Thanks to questions on full-time and part-time work since the very beginning of Labour Force Survey in 1983, we have information available on the evolution of part-time work for more than 40 years. Therefore, we observe that the percentage of part-time employees has been gradually evolving from 8.3% in 1983 to more than 25% for the first time in 2009. In the following years, the figure fluctuated between 25% and 27%. Since 2020, a slight decrease seems to appear.
In the ‘80s, part-time work was very exceptional for men: less than 2% of male employees worked part-time, compared to 21% (in 1983) to 28% (in 1989) of women. In absolute numbers, it was then 36,000 men versus 197,000 women in 1983.
In the following years, the number of female part-time employees continued to rise, what is strongly related to the sharp increase in female labour market participation in the same period. Since the beginning of the years 2000, this increase slows down significantly. We gradually observe a smoothing of the curve of female part-time employees, which slightly decreases from year to year from 2013 onwards. In absolute figures, we still note an increase, again thanks to the still rising female labour market participation in the last ten years. In 2023, 846,000 female employees worked part-time, which is more than four times the number at the beginning of the measurement in 1983.
For men, we observe a different evolution. At the end of the ‘90s, the percentage of male part-time employees remains very low with 2% to 4%. Only since the years 2000, the figure started to rise from year to year, reaching 12.1% in 2023. Also in absolute figures, the number of male part-time employees increases. It evolved from 36,000 in the ‘80s to 263,000 in 2023.
However, men and women do not work part-time for the same reasons. While the main reason for women is the provision of child or dependent care, this same reason comes only in 5th position for men.
For female employees, the main reasons for working part-time are:
- Provision of child or dependent care (25.8%)
- Other personal reasons (25.7%)
- Cannot find full-time work or the job is not offered on a full-time basis (17.0%)
For male employees, the main reasons for working part-time are:
- Other personal reasons (24.1%)
- Cannot find full-time work or the job is not offered on a full-time basis (21.0%)
- In education or training (19.9%)