Number of employed people in EU fell last year

The number of expatriates and national workers aged between 15 and 64 employed within European Union member states fell from 65.9 per cent in 2008 to 64.6 per cent last year, the EU's statistics office research has revealed.

However, expat and national workers aged between 55 and 64 were more likely to have jobs last year, with an employment rate of 46 per cent, up from 45.6 in 2008.

All but two member states had a higher male employment rate than female, the exceptions being Lithuania and Latvia. Malta, Greece and Italy recorded the greatest differences between the male and female employment rates, with 34, 25 and 22 percentage points respectively.

Overall, some 217.8 million resident people in the EU's 27 member states aged 15 and up had a job or carried out a business activity in 2009, the Eurostat data shows.

Expatriates aged 55-64 were most likely to be employed in Sweden, Estonia, Denmark, the UK and Germany, where the older workers' employment rate was highest.