rush hour in Amsterdam statistically
about one out of every two of these
workers is a part-time employee the
Netherlands is Europe's capital of
part-time work almost half the
population works less than 35 hours a
week and can generally afford it the
question is can the country labor
shortages are already hitting hard and
workforces are getting smaller and it's
not just the Netherlands Germany Austria
and Switzerland are facing similar
Trends now we're in the situ our society
is overaging we have 200,000 open
positions in
Austria yet many employees are pushing
to work less how does that add up we'll
look at how relationships with work are
changing in wealthier European countries
and what that means for an era of Labor
shortages will workers begin to raise
their hours what's the reason that you
want to work for is what do you need to
work full-time or will they push for
more free time I think that the more
time that you can make for yourself for
your personal projects for your personal
life I think it can be really
interesting will Europe work more in the
future or will it work less that's
coming up on business
Beyond Europe's labor landscape has
changed in recent
decades not that long ago the idealized
household in many European countries
looked like this one partner worked
typically the man the other stayed at
home to care for the children and of
course that was supposed to be the woman
especially if you look at a household so
it used to be the case that women were
not working at all would be perhaps in
the 50s Susanna biker is an economist
with rabo Bank in
utr so you could be fired here in the
Netherlands when you got married and
then you saw that the the the man was
working and was uh working 40 hours a
week now things look rather different
women's participation in the workforce
has grown significantly across Europe in
recent
decades that's also helped make make
workforces bigger the EU remains at near
Peak employment of around 75% its
highest level since recording began in
2009 several economies including Germany
Austria and Switzerland have recently
been at or near record employment
rates those characteristics of Europe's
modern Workforce that it's larger that
it's more integrated they owe a lot to
the popularity of part-time work and the
Embrace of part-time work really began
here in the Netherlands unemployment was
much higher in the Netherlands in the
late 70s and early 80s the country
encouraged part-time work as part of a
series of broader reforms and it helped
in the sense that more people entered
the market especially women unemployment
fell Germany took a similar route in the
9s the newly reunified country suddenly
had a lot of workers without jobs
part-time became a feature of more and
more labor
agreements the Netherlands and Germany
later created laws protecting part-time
basically making it more difficult for
an employer to reject an employee
request to work that way and part-time
caught on in other countries Austria and
Switzerland for example we're now
roughly a third of employees is working
less than full-time but parttime is most
popular among women who still have the
majority of care responsibilities at
home and less flexibility with fulltime
now the Netherlands has one of the
highest shares of women in the workforce
it's important to note that the
Netherlands and some of the other
countries we've been talking about are a
bit more conservative on the one hand
that is women traditionally stayed at
home to care for children and they
didn't work another difference is that
the Netherlands is wealthier than other
European countries in other words it's
more likely that in a Dutch household
with two workers one is working
part-time out of choice I think that's
uh more so perhaps than in other
countries in the US where pension is not
arranged and there's no uh um yeah real
estate pension in that sense here in the
Netherlands that's more arranged so
there's more a social um net to catch
people when uh things go bad and when
you get unemployed and and that makes
that people have a more comfortable
position in that sense there are also
disincentives to working more taxes for
example among major economies European
countries have some of the highest tax
rates on second earners with children
and they downsides to part-time it means
lower income and workers again
predominantly women often don't return
to full-time work in the end whether for
cultural or financial reasons or a
combination many households in the
Netherlands feel comfortable with a one
and a half earner household with one
person working full-time and the other
part-time part-time work has given
employees and households more
flexibility essentially more options to
balance work with care obligations they
have at home for children or for family
members so what's wrong with that
actually nothing but it does mean that
there's less work being done per person
the average part-time worker in the EU
puts in around 22 hours a week and look
at this this is the average number of
working hours per worker annually in
major economies around the world and
guess who's at the bottom wealthier
European nations Germany isn't just at
the very bottom it's 400 hours below the
oecd
average now that makes sense when we
consider part-time work and again that's
not really a problem as long as
workforces are big but they're shrinking
and this is happening across Western
economies right now look at how this
population pyramid for the EU changes
from 2022 to 2100 noticeably shink dring
the number of working age individuals in
EU States is expected to decline
20% labor is going to be scarse very
scarse in the future so this is not a
oneoff it's not like 10 years from now
or out of this and then it's gone no
it's it's here to stay she's talking
about the Netherlands but the same
applies to other European countries as
well Economist warned that there's no
easy fix to the coming labor problems
it's going to take more than migration
for example to deal with what's
ahead and to see how part-time plays
into the coming shortages you can look
here hi I'm Mara Lu the principal of the
GL Nicolas at Dutch Primary School in
Amsterdam education is one sector where
shortages are already bad in the
Netherlands also in Germany the image um
is not very good uh the salary is bad
you got a lot of problems with the
parents so that doesn't help when
applicants come to Mara's School many
want to work part-time for different
reasons but with a smaller candidate
pool that's a problem I always start a
conversation with her what's the reason
that you want to work for days uh what
do you need to work full-time uh I tell
them the the advantages for them but
also for their salary but also for the
longterm that they're also aware about
the choices and consequences they make
Healthcare is another sector where
finding people is becoming more
difficult there's a shortage of people
it's a a low productive uh labor H so it
it's just a heavy it's physically uh
intensive especially Healthcare and
demand for healthcare is only going to
rise in the years ahead societies are
getting older
remember caring for children and family
members is the number one reason
employees give for why they work
part-time again this is overwhelmingly
women so does that mean that if we
provide more care options for them that
more will go into the workforce well
it's actually not that simple even uh a
lot of women tell us that they started
working they joined the labor force with
a contract of 16 hours like 30 years ago
and then they never changed vtic gravin
works with Dutch Healthcare
organizations who are struggling with
labor shortages very elaborate shift
structures especially in healthcare
often make part-time more attractive to
both employees and employers she says
but there's also become something of a
broader cultural expectation for
part-time and we asked them why did you
never change and they say well yeah
that's simply the way it is so it is
really a deeply ingrained Norm uh and
now of course because of we have the
labor market shortages all of a sudden
everybody starts to doubt whether this
is actually the right Norm it's a hard
topic because it's everyone is used to
it so yeah we all work part-time and uh
as a mom full-time working mom um you
often get a question you work full-time
but why do you work full-time and um so
I don't know it's it's it's hard to
change but part-time is about more than
just working
moms my name is Tais I'm an architect
and I work 28 hours Ty suti isn't caring
for children or family members but she
works part-time
anyways sometimes my mom uh sends me a
message on a Friday and she's like oh
I'm sorry you're working I'm like no I
never work on Fridays T worked 28 hours
while finishing up her master's degree
her firm asks her to come back up to 32
hours still part-time but she doesn't
mind I feel that right now with 28 hours
I earn enough to live okay let's say and
the idea is that if I would continue
working 28 hours then I could let's say
develop maybe my hobby as an illustrator
into a side gig but um with 32 hours of
course there will be um more salary in
the end of the month with the advantage
that I still have the Fridays free so I
can still work on my illustrations and
who knows where that would take me let's
be clear ta's work is quite different
from say nursing or teaching but
economists say that underlying desire to
have more free time is visible across
wealthier European
countries I have the feeling that people
started to realize that maybe work is
not everything and maybe being extremely
rich is not everything that right now
it's more about how you feel mentally
how you uh dedicate time for your family
or for the things that you actually
truly love doing in other words falling
work hours isn't just about caretaking
it's also about a more General push for
work life balance across the entire
Workforce just look at Germany the
country's Steel Workers have pushed for
a 4-day work week in recent negotiations
despite many of them already working 35
hours
full-time rail workers shut down train
lines earlier this year in their push
for a 35h hour work week this is the
tricky part for policy makers labor has
more leverage but it's not just higher
wages that it wants and while some
Industries may do all right with fewer
workers for other sectors that's not an
option distinguishing where fewer hours
works from where it doesn't that can be
difficult this is Austrian Chancellor
Kyle
nehammer here he's speaking informally
to a group of supporters near zburg last
year he's unhappy about criticisms that
his government isn't doing enough for
poor
families why isn't the part-time quota
Rising why is it not Rising not even
among women without care
responsibilities when I need money I get
a
job the chancellor jumbled his words a
bit but his message was clear he finds
part-time popularity
problematic we're turning one job into
two 20 hours 20 hours that's 40 hours
together but you have two employees who
are working it now we're in the
situation our society is overaging we
have 200,000 open positions in Austria
the debate over working hours is growing
in a lot of these countries and in some
cases it's getting rather pointed
because for many people this comes down
to a fundamental question do people
still have the will to work but labor
economists say that's unfair more people
are working after all and it's possible
that some of the traditional incentives
to work more might be changing you still
want to live in a nice house and that
you have to live with your parents until
you're 30 simply said because the labor
or the housing market doesn't offer
anything I think if they could work more
and then would be able to buy that house
if they like their parents were or their
grandparents were I think they would but
the fact that it's not possible so I
think I think that choice for uh free
time is is not I think it's exaggerated
perhaps a bit I think they they still
want to work and they still want to have
a good job and they would like to live
in a house but I think that's not very
apparent perhaps from the data uh at the
moment other part-timers meanwhile might
be very much open to increas ing their
hours it's also a completely different
Choice whether you go from 24 to
26 uh or you go from 40 to 32 and I
think there are really different groups
and sometimes we want to when we talk
about part-time it's just one big
container term well the question now
facing governments is how do you make
that extra hour or two or three of work
worth it for
employees both the Netherlands and
Switzerland have pushed for more child
care with mixed results the s effort has
been tabled by the National Council in
Baron and the Netherlands has postponed
its Child Care Promise by 2 years citing
budget
cuts countries have also struggled to
change those tax measures we talked
about Germany has so far held off on
scrapping its income splitting tax rules
for married couples which essentially
incentivizes one earner to work Less in
Austria a debate over lowering wage
taxes for businesses continues to
simmer and then there's the employer
side that's where Gra has experience
she's the founder of Ed potenti pin in
Amsterdam it helps companies especially
in healthcare approach their own
part-time workers about increasing hours
her team sits down with employers to
understand scheduling taxes everything
they can take to their own employees and
it's not just about wages according to
gravin the number one reason and that
has been so for four years is I I enjoy
my job I want to work more hours as long
as I enjoy it so it's interesting that
not Financial incentives are not the
most important drivers to work more
hours scheduling is actually one of the
biggest challenges she says but
employers are becoming more flexible
there there are quite a lot of teachers
that have children themselves and they
say well I wouldn't mind working an
extra day but then I would like to start
a little bit later because you know I
have to drop off my kids at school what
you then saw for a long time that you
know a School director said no way yeah
we start at 8:30 and you better be there
you and what you see happening now is
because there's such a shortage of uh
teachers that you see their willingness
to to say well why don't you start at 9
or at 9:30 and we're make sure that
there's somebody else who receives the
children and looks after them for the
first hour that is something that is
happening because of the tight labor
market and I think that this this term
of flexibility and that really goes both
ways is super important to make this
work remember Macha her first school
district worked with cen's Team to help
their own conversations with teachers
about going up in hours a no is also
possible so it's not that you are forced
to work full-time no but what are the
needs and uh what can we arrange and if
not now maybe in the near future but I
think uh it's well in Dutch there's a
saying it's a it's a seat that you plant
so it's not it's not that you just fix
it right away this is really a story
about personal needs and the needs of a
society in countries like the
Netherlands people can really work more
to their own preferences but that does
have consequences for the overall labor
market and for society many of us may
indeed end up working less especially in
fields where technology makes our jobs
easier but other sectors will still need
more hours from fewer workers how will
they get them and what happens when
companies or sectors compete with one
another for an Ever shrinking talent
pool it's also a story about women about
how they work work now and how they're
going to work in the future much of that
potential for more work and more hours
belongs to women now working in
part-time positions which leads to other
questions like how families organize
themselves and what role the state plays
in providing care options that's all we
have time for for now for this episode
of business Beyond we thank you for
watching and we hope to see you
soon