Part-time work three times as popular as in 1983
Over the past 40 years, the number of employed people working part-time has tripled: in 2024, 26.4% of employees in Belgium were working part-time, compared to 8.3% in 1983. It is mainly female employees who work part-time: 40.5% in 2024; in 1983 the figure was 20.5%. The increase is the largest among male employees: in 2024, 12.8% of them worked part-time, compared to barely 1.9% in 1983. For both men and women, four-fifths time employment is the most popular part-time working arrangement. Part-time work is most common in accommodation and food service activities and in the healthcare sector. This is what emerged from the new results of Statbel, the Belgian statistical office, which closely examines the evolution of the Labour Force Survey since 1983.
The percentage of employees working part-time has gradually evolved from 8.3% in 1983, to exceed 25% for the first time in 2009. In the following years, the figure fluctuated between 25% and 27%. Since 2020, however, there seems to be a slight decline.
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 share of part-time work among women continued to rise, what is strongly related to the increase in female labour market participation in the same period. From the early 2000s, this increase slows down significantly and we gradually see a levelling off of the curve of the share of women working part-time, which slightly decreases from year to year from 2013 onwards. However, in absolute figures, we still note an increase, again thanks to the continuing rise of female labour market participation over the past decade. In 2024, 857,000 female employees had a part-time job, which is more than four times the number recorded at the beginning of the measurement in 1983.
For men, we observe a different evolution. Until the end of the ’90s, the percentage of male part-time employees remained very low, with 2% to 4%. Only since the 2000s does the figure start to rise from year to year, reaching 12.8% in 2024. In absolute figures, the number of male employees working part-time also increases. It went from 36,000 in the ’80s to 283,000 in 2024.
Part-time work is the most common in accommodation and food service activities, followed by healthcare. Approximately half of the jobs in accommodation and food service activities are performed part-time. The share is high among both men (40.5%) and women (61.6%). Just under half of employees work part-time in the sector of human health and social work activities. Among women, this is just over half (52.8%), and among men, about 1 in 4 (25.3%).
Then there are a number of sectors where between 30% and 40% of the employees have a part-time job. These are administrative and support service activities, the art sector, education, whole sale and retail trade and the sector “other service activities”. The differences per gender can sometimes be quite significant. The largest gender gap can be seen in administrative and support service activities. Whereas 53.3% of women in this sector work part-time, this is the case for only 16.8% of men.
A third group of sectors has an average percentage of part-time work that is lower than 20%, but again the differences between men and women can be quite large. For women, the percentage of part-time work varies from 22.7% to 31.2%, while for men it is a maximum of 8.9%. The sector with the lowest percentage of part-time work is construction, but this is also a sector with a small share of female employees.
Part-time employment among employees, according to part-time working arrangements and gender (2017-2024)
| In percentage | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 (b) | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | |||||||||
| Full-time | 72.7% | 72.9% | 71.9% | 72.6% | 74.0% | 74.5% | 73.8% | 73.6% | |
| Part-time - 50 % | 10.6% | 10.6% | 10.1% | 10.0% | 9.5% | 10.0% | 9.3% | 9.4% | |
| Part-time - 4/5th | 12.8% | 12.6% | 13.1% | 12.6% | 12.3% | 11.6% | 12.1% | 11.9% | |
| Part-time - other | 3.9% | 4.0% | 4.9% | 4.8% | 4.3% | 4.0% | 4.9% | 5.0% | |
| Men | |||||||||
| Full-time | 88.6% | 89.1% | 88.4% | 87.4% | 89.5% | 89.5% | 87.9% | 87.6% | |
| Part-time - 50 % | 4.1% | 3.8% | 3.6% | 4.3% | 3.4% | 3.8% | 3.9% | 3.9% | |
| Part-time - 4/5th | 5.3% | 5.4% | 4.9% | 5.5% | 4.9% | 4.4% | 5.0% | 5.4% | |
| Part-time - other | 2.0% | 1.8% | 3.0% | 2.8% | 2.2% | 2.3% | 3.2% | 3.1% | |
| Women | |||||||||
| Full-time | 55.5% | 55.8% | 54.8% | 57.3% | 58.0% | 59.1% | 59.2% | 59.1% | |
| Part-time - 50 % | 17.8% | 17.7% | 16.8% | 16.0% | 15.7% | 16.2% | 14.9% | 15.2% | |
| Part-time - 4/5th | 20.9% | 20.2% | 21.5% | 19.9% | 19.9% | 19.0% | 19.3% | 18.7% | |
| Part-time - other | 5.9% | 6.2% | 6.9% | 6.8% | 6.3% | 5.7% | 6.6% | 7.0% | |
| The data above comes from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). In this survey, people working part-time were asked about the volume of their part-time employment as a percentage of full-time employment. In this table, all percentages from 40 % to 60 % are considered half-time jobs (50 %) and all percentages from 70 % and 90 % as four-firths time jobs (80 %). The category "part-time - other" contains percentages below 40 %, percentages from 60 % and 70 % and percentages above 90 %. The Labour Force Survey has undergone considerable reform in 2017. From 2017 onward, we work with a rotating panel, we use different data collection methods, and the weighting method was substantially reviewed. This led to a break in our results. Consequently, the figures obtained with the old method cannot be compared to those obtained with the new method. |
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Percentage of part-time employees compared to the total of employees, per NACE-BEL-2008 section and gender (2024)
| Share of part-time employment | 2024 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men | Women | Total | |||||||||||||
| A Agriculture, forestry and fishing | * | * | * | ||||||||||||
| B. Mining and quarrying | * | * | * | ||||||||||||
| C Manufacturing | 8.0% | 28.9% | 13.3% | ||||||||||||
| D Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply | * | * | * | ||||||||||||
| E Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities | * | * | * | ||||||||||||
| F Construction | 5.3% | 28.9% | 8.0% | ||||||||||||
| G Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles | 15.7% | 46.3% | 29.6% | ||||||||||||
| H Transportation and storage | 8.9% | 28.1% | 13.0% | ||||||||||||
| I Accommodation and food service activities | 40.5% | 61.6% | 50.6% | ||||||||||||
| J Information and communication | 8.0% | 22.7% | 12.3% | ||||||||||||
| K Financial and insurance activities | 8.8% | 29.1% | 18.6% | ||||||||||||
| L Real estate activities | * | * | * | ||||||||||||
| M Professional, scientific and technical activities | 7.9% | 31.2% | 19.7% | ||||||||||||
| N Administrative and support service activities | 16.8% | 53.3% | 40.0% | ||||||||||||
| O Public administration and defence; compulsory social security | 7.7% | 26.6% | 17.4% | ||||||||||||
| P Education | 24.5% | 34.6% | 31.6% | ||||||||||||
| Q Human health and social work activities | 25.3% | 52.8% | 47.3% | ||||||||||||
| R Arts, entertainment and recreation | 26.5% | 47.4% | 35.4% | ||||||||||||
| S Other service activities | 25.5% | 40.9% | 35.0% | ||||||||||||
| T Activities of households as employers; undifferentiated goods- and services-producing activities of households for own use * | * | * | * | ||||||||||||
| U Activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies | * | * | * | ||||||||||||
| Total | 12.8% | 40.5% | 26.4% | ||||||||||||
| * classification too detailed The Labour Force Survey has undergone considerable reform in 2017. From 2017 onward, we work with a rotating panel, we use different data collection methods, and the weighting method was substantially reviewed. This led to a break in our results. Consequently, the figures obtained with the old method cannot be compared to those obtained with the new method. (b) Break in the results in 2021 due to the revision of the questionnaire and the change in the ILO definitions of unemployment and employment. |
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Part-time employment per reason and gender (2017-2024)
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men | Women | Total | Men | Women | Total | Men | Women | Total | Men | Women | Total | |
| (Eearly) retirement | 5.3% | 1.2% | 2.1% | 4.2% | 1.0% | 1.7% | 5.4% | 0.8% | 1.8% | 4.6% | 1.1% | 1.9% |
| Cannot find full-time employment | 12.7% | 6.4% | 7.8% | 11.1% | 5.6% | 6.8% | 10.2% | 4.6% | 5.8% | 6.5% | 4.3% | 4.8% |
| Switched from full-time to part-time employment for economic reasons | 1.8% | 0.6% | 0.9% | 1.0% | 0.7% | 0.8% | 1.0% | 0.4% | 0.6% | 1.9% | 0.7% | 1.0% |
| In addition to other part-time employment | 5.5% | 2.9% | 3.5% | 5.0% | 3.9% | 4.1% | 5.7% | 3.4% | 3.8% | 6.6% | 3.2% | 4.0% |
| Combination with training | 8.4% | 3.1% | 4.2% | 8.0% | 3.3% | 4.3% | 8.9% | 3.9% | 4.9% | 8.9% | 4.7% | 5.7% |
| Medical reason (work incapacity) | 7.1% | 6.1% | 6.3% | 8.0% | 7.1% | 7.3% | 8.9% | 6.8% | 7.2% | 10.0% | 7.5% | 8.1% |
| Professional reasons (working atmosphere or conditions, stress, harassment...) | 1.0% | 0.7% | 0.8% | 0.6% | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2.2% | 0.8% | 1.1% | 1.1% | 0.8% | 0.9% |
| Provision of child and dependant care | 6.2% | 24.6% | 20.6% | 7.9% | 24.9% | 21.4% | 7.6% | 25.0% | 21.4% | 7.6% | 24.0% | 20.2% |
| Other personal or family-related reasons | 21.8% | 25.3% | 24.6% | 19.8% | 20.4% | 20.3% | 13.3% | 20.2% | 18.7% | 11.3% | 20.2% | 18.1% |
| Does not want a full-time job | 7.3% | 8.2% | 8.0% | 6.5% | 9.6% | 9.0% | 7.6% | 10.3% | 9.8% | 6.5% | 9.4% | 8.7% |
| The desired job is only offered on a part-time basis | 16.2% | 16.7% | 16.6% | 16.5% | 16.5% | 16.5% | 17.6% | 17.8% | 17.8% | 21.0% | 17.2% | 18.1% |
| Other reason | 6.7% | 4.1% | 4.7% | 11.4% | 6.2% | 7.3% | 11.8% | 6.0% | 7.2% | 14.1% | 6.8% | 8.5% |
| Total | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% |
| The Labour Force Survey has undergone considerable reform in 2017. From 2017 onward, we work with a rotating panel, we use different data collection methods, and the weighting method was substantially reviewed. This led to a break in our results. Consequently, the figures obtained with the old method cannot be compared to those obtained with the new method. | ||||||||||||
| 2021 (b) | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men | Women | Total | Men | Women | Total | Men | Women | Total | Men | Women | Total | |
| You cannot find a full-time job or your job is not offered on a full-time basis | 22.5% | 21.7% | 21.9% | 21.6% | 17.8% | 18.6% | 21.0% | 17.0% | 17.9% | 18.5% | 18.1% | 18.2% |
| You are in education or training | 15.9% | 7.0% | 9.0% | 17.9% | 7.9% | 10.2% | 19.9% | 8.5% | 11.2% | 19.2% | 8.7% | 11.3% |
| Because of an illness or incapacity for work | 8.0% | 5.9% | 6.4% | 8.9% | 6.6% | 7.1% | 8.7% | 6.9% | 7.3% | 11.0% | 7.8% | 8.6% |
| Care for own children or other dependent relatives | 10.3% | 24.6% | 21.4% | 9.7% | 26.0% | 22.2% | 10.9% | 25.8% | 22.3% | 9.7% | 25.3% | 21.4% |
| Other family reasons | 6.3% | 12.2% | 10.9% | 5.0% | 11.7% | 10.2% | 4.1% | 11.2% | 9.5% | 5.2% | 10.7% | 9.4% |
| Other personal reasons | 25.4% | 24.1% | 24.4% | 27.9% | 25.5% | 26.1% | 24.1% | 25.7% | 25.3% | 26.0% | 24.8% | 25.1% |
| Other reason | 11.6% | 4.5% | 6.0% | 9.0% | 4.6% | 5.6% | 11.2% | 4.9% | 6.4% | 10.4% | 4.6% | 6.1% |
| Total | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% |
| (b) Break in the results in 2021 due to the revision of the questionnaire and the change in the ILO definitions of unemployment and employment. | ||||||||||||
Labour force survey (LFS)
Purpose and short description
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a socio-economic household sample survey. Its main objective is to classify the working age population (15 and older) into three groups (employed, unemployed and inactive persons) and to provide descriptive and explanatory data on every category. This survey is also carried out in the other EU Member States and is coordinated by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In Belgium, the LFS is organised by Statbel. The objective is to obtain comparable information at European level, in particular as regards employment and unemployment rates as defined by the International Labour Office (ILO), but also to collect and disseminate data that are otherwise not available, for example about the mobility of workers, the reasons for working part-time, the various forms of part-time employment, the occupation, the educational level of the working age population, ... .
Survey population
Members of private households aged 15 or older.
Sample frame
Demographic data from the National Register.
Data collection method and sample size
Data are collected through face-to-face interviews. Since 2017, there have been three (shorter) follow-up surveys to which households respond online or by telephone.
Households with only inactive persons older than 64 can also be interviewed by telephone.
Every year, around 47,000 households receive a letter asking them to take part in this survey.
Response rate
The response rate is above 75%.
Periodicity
Quarterly
Release calendar
Results availability: around 3 months after the end of the reference period.
Forms
- Labour Force Survey 2020 (PDF, 541 Kb)
- Labour Force Survey 2021 (PDF, 1 Mb)
Definitions
Unemployed (ILO): According to the criteria of the International Labour Office, the unemployed include all people aged 15 years and over who: a) were without work during the reference week b) were available for work, i.e. were available for paid employment or self-employment within two weeks after the reference week c) were actively seeking work, i.e. had taken specific steps during the last four weeks including the reference week to seek paid employment or self-employment, or who had found a job to start within a maximum period of three months.
Employed population (ILO): The employed comprise all people aged 15 and over who during the reference week performed some work for at least one hour for wage or salary, or for profit, or who had a job but were temporarily absent. For example, one can be temporarily absent for holidays, illness, technical or economic reasons (temporary unemployment),....Family workers are also included in the category ‘employed’. The employed are divided into three groups according to their professional status:
Employees: Employees comprise all persons aged 15 and over who during the reference period performed some work (with or without a formal contract) for at least one hour for wage or salary, or who were temporarily not at work during the reference period (because of illness, maternity leave, holidays, social conflict, weather conditions or other reasons) and had a formal attachment to their job.
Non-employees: Non-employees comprise all persons who do not work for an employer and who during the reference week performed some work for at least one hour for profit or who were temporarily not at work during the reference period. This includes self-employed people (without employees) and employers (with employees) and unpaid workers.
Labour force: The labour force or economically active population (15 years and older) consists of people with an occupation (persons employed) and the unemployed.
Unemployment rate: The unemployment rate represents the share of unemployed people in the labour force (employed + unemployed) aged 15 to 64.
Employment rate: The employment rate represents the share of employed people in a specific age group (15-64 years old, 20-64 years old,...).
Economic activity rate: The economic activity rate represents the share of the labour force (employed and unemployed) in the population aged 15 to 64.
Education level (3 classes): Low-skilled people are people who have at most a diploma of lower secondary education. Medium-skilled people are people who obtained a diploma of upper secondary education but not of higher education. Highly-skilled people have a diploma of higher education.
Metadata
Survey methodology
- Modifications to the Labour Force Survey (LFS) in 2021
- LFS: Methodological improvements to the Labour Force Survey 2017 (PDF, 99 Kb)
- LFS: Presentation of the survey until 2016 (NL-FR)
- LFS: Presentation of the survey from 2017 (NL-FR)